Changelog

What's new in blackbear

Every release, the short version. For the longer stories, check out our news posts.

v2.7 October 8, 2026

Blackbear 2.7

Pages become a block editor you can share live, Notes gain an outliner, and Mermaid diagrams draw wherever you write. Projects bring your code into Desk, Pax keeps a Runtime folder of its own, and Blackbear narrows to what matters: Desk first, connections instead of followers. Includes bb 1.7.

New
  • Pages are a block editor: type / for a block, drag blocks by their handle, give a page its own theme, and edit it with others in real time. Code blocks, to-dos, toggles, callouts, images and galleries from your Files, and embeds that show live data.
  • Outliner notes: fold and zoom into any bullet, move branches from the keyboard, reference or embed a block in another note with ((block)) and {{embed}}, and link straight to a single block.
  • Import a Logseq graph: pages, journals as daily notes, and their assets.
  • Diagrams from Mermaid: a Mermaid code block draws as a Blackbear diagram in Notes, Docs, and Slides, and a note can open its diagram as a canvas and update it later.
  • Projects in the desktop app: clone a Git repository, private ones through your GitHub or Gitea connection, into a Project that lives in Desk, and let Pax read its code.
  • Pax keeps a Runtime folder: a System prompt you can edit, Notes to self it reads when a conversation starts, and any note you hand it with Give to Pax at wake.
  • Pax searches the web with your own Brave, Exa, or Linkup key in the native app, or with Blackbear search paid from Credits once your plan's allowance is used.
  • Decisions: a small, fast model reads each message first so Pax reaches for the right tools. Paid from Credits, and you choose it in Settings › Pax.
  • Drop files or a whole folder anywhere to import them.
  • The iOS app gets native notifications.
  • bb 1.7: bb project creates Projects and clones private repositories through your forge connection, bb file md block edits outliner notes block by block, bb file page new starts a page, and bb status reports the native runtime accurately.
Improved
  • A simpler Blackbear: Desk comes first, Tasks has its own page, and Today and Discover are retired. Listen is hidden until you add it back in Settings › Navigation.
  • Connections replace followers: connect is the only relationship, and your timeline reaches all your connections.
  • Desk and Calendar filters sit along the top and open in place, the calendar fits narrow windows, and scheduling links are made right from the calendar.
  • A File's settings open where the File is, with a real font picker, a live preview, and Fira Code, and new writing starts in a calmer Sans at 16 px.
  • Links and highlights stay readable on every theme, bare URLs become links, and switching themes cross-fades without a pause.
  • Sharing gives each person their own access level, Connect has one composer field, and People can be searched, filtered, and sorted.
  • Pax keeps what it says between steps on screen, stops at the step limit you choose (25, 50, 100, or none), and reuses its prompt cache so long conversations cost less.
  • Slides, Docs, and Canvas insert images through the File picker, the Slides inspector docks beside the slide, and Canvas has a labelled diamond for decisions.
  • Diagrams draw straight lines between neighbouring steps instead of elbows.
  • Docs have a quieter header with the outline and comments in the footer, and Notes show collaborators' cursors like Docs.
  • Opening a File collapses the sidebar, and creating a task shows every option at once.
  • Settings › Account shows the plans side by side with a monthly or yearly toggle, and Pax credits are now simply Credits.
  • On phones, Desk and Calendar keep search, filters, and New in a bottom row, and scheduling-link booking pages fit the screen.
  • Connect, scheduling, and meeting links show a preview card when you share them, and the browser tab shows the app icon.
  • Medication routines take specific times and appear on the calendar.
Fixed
  • A File waiting for you to choose between two versions no longer closes your workspace; sync carries on around it.
  • A lapsed Cloud plan shows as Free everywhere.
  • Enable notifications works in the desktop app.
  • Canvases shared with you open, and new canvases use dark paper in a dark theme.
  • A Docs File sent in Connect shows its words, and threads stay put while images load.
  • Line height, word count, and typewriter settings reach the editor, and the caret sits at text height.
  • Blank Sheets and Canvases that Pax creates open normally.
  • Tables scroll instead of breaking words, and Esc leaves text on a canvas.
v2.6 October 4, 2026

Blackbear 2.6

See who is around with activity status, keep nine Files a click away, and move through Blackbear from the keyboard. Every editor now shares one header, one Share dialog, and one Export dialog. Includes bb 1.6.

New
  • Activity status: set yourself online, away, busy, or invisible from the logo, and your connections see a dot on your avatar. Your status travels encrypted, so our servers never see it.
  • File tabs: nine numbered Files one click away, with keyboard shortcuts, drag to reorder, and a right-click menu.
  • Move around from the keyboard: j and k walk Desk, Connect, Discover, and menus, Enter opens, g g and G jump to the ends, and Escape closes menus top-most first.
  • The sidebar ends in your account (photo, first name, Settings, and theme) and a status row with your plan, sync health, help, and Trash.
  • Catalog Save puts a pick from Discover straight on your Desk, PDFs and EPUBs included.
  • Pax works inside shared Docs as people edit them, and its changes appear in the editor you have open.
  • bb 1.6: Pax formats a Doc in one step, and merging a Doc keeps both sides' colors.
Improved
  • One header, title, and File menu in every editor, one Share dialog for collaborating or sending a copy, and an Export dialog with a preview.
  • Formatting follows your selection: buttons grey out where they cannot apply, applying a format twice removes it, and list items wrap only their text.
  • Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Canvas keep their own colors, every color picker offers any color, and tags rename and recolor from their menu.
  • Connect has one New menu, threads that sit at the bottom grouped by day, light formatting and links, and an attach menu that can share an event.
  • The calendar month opens on its first week, past days recede, all-day events are soft tinted pills, and week and day views show a line for now.
  • A phone held sideways keeps the phone layout and stays clear of the Dynamic Island.
  • Your Profile opens on a preview of your page.
Fixed
  • Dragging a calendar event reschedules it again.
  • Deleting a folder always asks first, and offers Undo.
  • Undo works in shared Docs again, and Free Music loads again.
v2.5 October 2, 2026

Blackbear 2.5

Pax can run on your other devices, first sync on a large account stops tripping limits, and iOS catches up on downloads, sharing, and Discover. Includes 2.5.1 and bb 1.5.

New
  • Run a Pax conversation on another of your devices, such as a Mac running Ollama or holding your own provider key, and watch it stream live. The serving device chooses which providers it hosts.
  • Settings shows your devices and what each one can do.
  • The model chip in a Pax conversation header switches its model.
Improved
  • First sync on a large account downloads and uploads in paced batches instead of running into rate limits.
  • Scheduling links publish once per change instead of looping, and the booking page checks the email before sending.
  • On iOS, download, export, share, and print all work, Discover feeds and podcasts load, notifications open, and version history opens as a sheet you can close.
Fixed
  • Calendar invites sent by message reach connected contacts even without an earlier chat.
  • Bold and italic stay put while typing in shared notes.
  • Pax numbered lists keep counting across blank lines.
  • Profile covers up to 4 MB are accepted after resizing.
v2.4 September 30, 2026

Blackbear 2.4

Profile pages, scheduling links, rooms and group calls, video Files, and document signing. Includes bb 1.4.

New
  • Profile pages: a page of your own that your connections can visit.
  • Scheduling links: share a link and let people book time with you, and the booking lands on your calendar. Available on Cloud plans.
  • Rooms and group calls: meet with several people at once, end-to-end encrypted.
  • Video Files: import and play videos alongside the rest of your Files.
  • Keep a File, folder, or tag on this device only. Your other devices move their copy to Trash, where you can restore it as a local copy.
  • Sign documents and export a signed PDF.
  • bb 1.4 brings scheduling links, video, and on-this-device-only files to the command line.
Improved
  • Pax defaults to Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol when you choose those providers.
Fixed
  • Your contacts no longer receive repeated profile updates.
  • Editor and sign-in fixes.
v2.3 September 28, 2026

Blackbear 2.3

Clip the web straight into Blackbear, write on your phone like it is a notebook, and let the AI tools you already use work with your files. Includes 2.3.1 and bb 1.3.

New
  • The Blackbear Web Clipper: save a page, a selection, or a recipe from Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari. Pair the browser with one of your devices, preview and adjust the clip, and it arrives there as a Markdown file that says where and when it was clipped. The extension is in review with the browser stores.
  • Writing on your phone feels like a notebook: a floating file header that fades as you scroll, larger checkboxes on the text margin, and bullets and tasks that continue right below when you press Enter. On iOS a keyboard bar holds undo, redo, headings, and file links, and the Aa panel lays out styles, marks, and lists as keys.
  • bb 1.3: bb auth login signs you in with a scoped API key, and bb mcp lets AI tools such as Claude Code and Codex work with your Blackbear files through the same tools Pax uses, with plugins for both.
  • API keys pick their scopes in Settings; the one that can spend Pax credits is labelled AI models.
  • Rename a file from its Desk context menu, and hold a tab on the phone bar to swap in Tasks, Tags, or Graph (with a small haptic tick).
  • Block and report people and content across Connect, timelines, comments, and shared files.
  • Pax asks before sending anything to a third-party AI provider.
Improved
  • Every file type has real settings: Documents, Slides, Canvas, Sheets, and Audio each get their own page, and nothing says coming soon.
  • Context menus stay on screen near the edges, and pressing and holding never starts a stray text selection.
  • Upgrade screens on iOS show the price, the renewal terms, and Restore purchases before you buy.
  • Face ID devices show Face ID by name and symbol; Touch ID devices show the fingerprint.
  • A polish pass across Desk previews, Reader covers, canvas zoom, calendar details, and Pax receipts, which now preview notes as plain text.
Fixed
  • A Pax conversation started on a newer version of Blackbear is kept safely until you update, instead of stopping sync.
  • Italics inside bold text render instead of showing asterisks.
  • On phones, image zoom controls and the Slides bar sit clear of the Pax bubble.
v2.2 September 27, 2026

Blackbear 2.2

Comments come to Docs, Slides, and Canvas. Pax learns to make images, to speak, and to set up connections with you. And saving is fast again on large accounts. Includes bb 1.2.

New
  • Comments: discuss a passage in Docs, a slide or an element in Slides, or pin a note on a canvas. Mention people, get notified, resolve threads, and invite commenters who can read and comment without editing.
  • Pax makes images: choose an image model with the Chat and Image switch, including GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and Flare, and place the result in any file. In the desktop app you can generate with your ChatGPT plan. Pax asks before spending on images, and Stop cancels mid-way.
  • On the Mac, Pax answers aloud when you speak to them.
  • Pax can walk you through setting up a connection such as Google Calendar. Keys and passwords go straight into Blackbear and never pass through Pax.
  • Change between Cloud and Cloud Pro, or between monthly and yearly, without starting a second subscription, and see clearly when a plan is ending or has ended.
  • Docs gain a selection toolbar.
Improved
  • Saving is fast again: on large accounts a save no longer freezes the desktop app for seconds, and changing one thing writes one thing.
  • A roomier file bar with a link to each format's settings, and notes default to 17px text.
  • Settings › General keeps everyday settings in view. Long Pax conversations open at the latest messages and load earlier ones as you scroll.
  • The theme editor warns about low text contrast instead of refusing to save, and changes to the theme you are using apply when you leave the editor.
  • The tag menu is searchable, Connect's Inbox sits before Timelines, and Blackbear's own confirmations replace system dialogs.
Fixed
  • Google Calendar connects in the desktop and mobile apps.
  • Dictation falls back to on-device Whisper when live dictation does not support your language, and stopping while it gets ready never leaves the microphone on.
  • Signing out works in the desktop app, and shared slide decks you receive open reliably.
  • Pax receipts wrap long text and name every action in plain words.
v2.1 September 24, 2026

Blackbear 2.1

Routines that run workflows for you, themes you can open and edit, templates for every format, a canvas Pax can draw on, and a sidebar you arrange yourself. Includes 2.1.1 and bb 1.1.

New
  • Routines can run a workflow on a schedule: set it up from the workflow's review, approve it once, and one of your devices runs it; Today shows what is coming up. Changing the routine or its workflow asks for approval again.
  • Pax knows your routines: set one up, log an entry just by mentioning it, read the history, and Undo.
  • Themes are files: your light and dark themes each point to one you can open, preview, and edit token by token. Pax can switch your theme and adjust display settings for you.
  • Templates for every format, canvases, pages, and streams included: a New template square in Create New, Save as template everywhere, and Pax can use and make templates too.
  • Canvas gains vector shapes and labels on shapes and lines, and Pax can draw: clean diagrams in your theme's colors, handwriting, and ink strokes, with a canvas preview in Pax's reply and Undo.
  • Arrange your sidebar and phone bar: hide pages, pin Desk views, and choose the page Blackbear opens to.
  • Pax adds Claude Opus 5.5, Fable 5.1, and GPT-6 Sol and Luna, with a reasoning setting per model.
  • Recover any file from your pre-2.0 archive, as itself or as a new file.
  • Create New gains Workflows & Routines, Reader, Audio, and Image start from a source, and Tasks can clear everything completed in one go.
Improved
  • Canvases store strokes far more compactly, shared canvases included, and drawing stays smooth while a save runs.
  • Desk cards stay put while the list refreshes, and tasks show up in Desk's first paint.
Fixed
  • Split panes work again, and Open file in an embed opens the file.
  • A mouse stroke keeps its width when you lift the pointer, and canvas page thumbnails no longer overlap.
  • Custom routines can be renamed and deleted, and the period tracker is now called Cycle.
  • Face ID unlock appears on iOS again, and the Pax bubble really leaves in focus mode (its switch now lives in Settings › Pax).
v2.0 September 22, 2026

Blackbear 2.0

A new foundation. Everything you keep in Blackbear now lives in one encrypted workspace that behaves the same on the web, the desktop, and your phone: new devices are useful in seconds and fill in behind you, existing accounts move over once — with your say-so — and sync stays quiet. On top of it: guided Workflows, a Pax that runs on a real engine with credits, providers, and Undo, and the bb command line at 1.0. The 2.0.x updates that followed launch week are folded in below.

New
  • One workspace on every platform: files, tasks, events, people, messages, templates, and settings share a single encrypted store with the same rules everywhere. Existing accounts are asked before the one-time move, watch it progress step by step, and keep a readable archive of their previous data on the device.
  • New devices are useful in seconds: choose how much to keep offline when you add one (or later in Settings › Sync), start working right away, and let the rest hydrate in the background with honest progress.
  • Workflows: guided packages such as Deep Work and Meeting walk you through a short wizard, show exactly what will be created — tasks, tags, notes, times — and let you review it before anything is written. Create New opens on Workflows, and your packages live in Desk under Workflows.
  • Pax runs on an engine now: it keeps track of its own working memory, condenses long conversations as they grow and shows you where that boundary sits, and every action it takes is a receipt you can Undo. Slash commands come to the chat, and a draft sent while Pax is still answering waits its turn.
  • Pax credits and providers: free accounts get a small included trial, credit packs are a click away in Settings, you can bring your own OpenRouter key, and the model picker spans every connected provider. A conversation keeps the model it started on unless you switch on purpose.
  • Send more from Messages: sheets, drawings, slides, streams, and binary files travel as attachments, and a page brings everything it depends on along with it.
  • Pages can embed tasks, notes, files, and streams, and form blocks turn a page into a small app — the same building blocks the Workflow wizards are made of, painted in your theme.
  • The recovery kit is a permanent Settings control: regenerate your recovery words whenever you like, and Blackbear says plainly when none are saved yet.
  • Account API keys for the bb command line: issue a show-once key from Settings (your vault confirms it) and revoke it at any time.
  • Content backup: preview what a backup will hold before you write it, and restore only what is missing.
  • Built-in templates open from their source — read-only, with a clear Use template action — instead of quietly making a copy on every click. The starter note templates were rewritten from scratch.
  • The Desk graph draws the same picture every visit: a steady, bounded layout with connected files clustered together and unconnected ones on tidy rings.
  • bb 1.0: the command line grows up alongside the app, built on the same native core and speaking the 2.0 sync protocol. Sign in with an account API key from Settings.
  • Create New › Import runs in the workspace: bring in Markdown, Word documents, spreadsheets (CSV and Excel), images, audio, and ebooks in one pass — pick a folder or create one on the spot, add tags, and attach a follow-up task. Files land in All Files unless a review row says otherwise.
  • Desk grid cards show what is inside each file — sheets, drawings, slides, docs, images, and audio included — not just a title.
  • Discover library import is back: Today and Subscriptions turn a followed story, paper, or book into a file you own, and PDFs open in the Reader.
  • Files that never synced from this device before 2.0 can be brought back from its archive in Settings › Data — choose which ones — and the 2.0 update itself now carries those local-only files along.
  • Touch ID and Face ID unlock return on the desktop and iOS apps: turn it on beneath the passphrase field and skip typing next time.
Improved
  • Sync is quiet when nothing is happening and quick when something is: it asks peers what changed before pulling, backs off while idle, waits out rate limits instead of declaring your workspace blocked, and revives a dropped live connection on its own.
  • One calm loading state for Desk, Today, and Messages; a clean first paint with the sidebar already at its saved width; routed pages settle before they fade in.
  • Settings speak 2.0: real storage usage, version-history storage, device-local sync controls, your tag name style honored everywhere, and profile Save and Discard buttons that appear only once something changed.
  • When something does block the workspace, the screen names the actual cause, and a session that ends mid-setup returns you to sign-in instead of an error.
  • Save a Discover story straight into your workspace as a file with its links intact, and Today shows a streak computed from what you actually did.
  • Collaboration shows your profile name on every format, and the editor no longer rebuilds itself on every presence update.
  • Devices report an accurate Last active, and the locked-vault screen can switch to a different account.
  • New devices fill in faster: file contents download several at a time, off the sync lane.
  • Signing out lands you on Today, Sync settings are calmer, and free plans keep a full replica of the workspace on every device.
  • Notifications: Dismiss hides a single notice and Clear earlier empties the list. The update banner stays visible above the vault screen, and the version number lives in Settings instead of the sidebar.
Fixed
  • Sign in with Google completes in the browser again.
  • Audio: play after pause resumes where you were, and the turntable no longer works your machine harder the longer it spins.
  • Sheets: floating charts can be dragged after their first move. Slides keep text styles after deleting a highlighted selection. Docs accept HTML tables.
  • The editor never parks the caret on a hidden list marker.
  • Files that moved over in the 2.0 update show their content in the graph panel instead of a false "not downloaded" notice.
  • The Pax bubble stays put across panel changes, docks where it should, and opens your latest chat.
  • Onboarding owes you the tour once per account, a mistyped email code says so, and native sign-up hands Google off properly.
  • Dictation keeps what you said out of diagnostic logs and honors a cancelled model download.
  • Discover feeds refresh again — subscription refreshes and proxied fetches had been failing since 2.0.0.
  • The 2.0 update no longer stalls on an account whose old data listed the same file twice, and a sign-in whose old data goes missing mid-check says so plainly and lets you retry.
  • Today keeps the journal card in place while Pax answers, and a Desk card whose contents have not reached this device yet asks again instead of remembering the miss.
v1.86 September 4, 2026

Pax reads the web

Pax can search and read the web for you with its sources in view, attachments arrive in conversations, and a new device tells you the truth about how far along it is.

New
  • Ask Pax to look something up: managed web search plus a careful page reader, with plain controls over what Pax may fetch and the sources it used shown alongside the answer.
  • Attach images and files to a Pax conversation and they travel to your chosen provider under the same rules as everything else Pax sees.
  • Choose how tag names display, everywhere tags appear.
  • A new device shows honest progress while it fills in, instead of a spinner that means nothing.
Improved
  • File chrome and navigation on the phone got a polish pass, overflowing file tags collapse neatly, and the trial banner stays out from under mobile sheets.
Fixed
  • Account sign-in in the native apps works again, and Apple sign-in from the Account tab hands off to the browser.
  • Docs: Pax and the live editor no longer overwrite each other, and links whose label is a URL keep that label.
  • Sync recovery: transient setup failures retry on their own, problem rows are set aside in one pass, and catch-up traffic is coalesced.
v1.85 August 26, 2026

Conversations that last

Pax conversations become durable files you can organize, and Messages moves onto the same sync core as the rest of your workspace.

New
  • A conversation library for Pax: folders, usage per conversation, rename and delete, a rebuilt composer, and images you can attach and send along to your provider.
  • Messages sync on the same core as your files, with a fenced first sync that protects a fresh device while it adopts your identity.
  • Desk filters on the phone live in a bottom sheet.
Fixed
  • Docs: pagination holds steady while you type, native printing is back, and link editing no longer uses a browser prompt.
  • Recurring calendar events stay visible while you scroll.
  • Sessions refresh before they expire, and audio resume state is kept per account.
  • On the phone, bottom navigation clears the bezel and drawing property actions read clearly.
v1.84 August 17, 2026

Math in your notes, your account in your hands

Write real math in Markdown, embed files and drawings in notes, and delete your account yourself if you ever decide to leave.

New
  • Portable math in Markdown notes: write LaTeX between dollar signs and it renders beautifully — offline too — while the file itself stays plain text you can take anywhere.
  • Link files from notes and embed drawings inline; references navigate where you expect.
  • Delete your account from Settings, self-serve, with a clear confirmation phrase and a plain description of what goes away.
  • Sensitive account actions ask your vault to confirm them first.
Fixed
  • Discover: subscribing to a category twice no longer duplicates it, and podcast browsing works in the web app again.
  • Pax conversation chrome and readiness are steady.
v1.83 August 15, 2026

Ask for a deck, get a deck

Pax goes from answering to authoring: complete slide decks composed as real files, skills you approve, conversations you can take with you. And the desktop app minds its manners.

New
  • Ask Pax for a presentation and get one: they compose complete slide decks — outline to finished slides — as real files in your workspace, with a live preview right in the conversation.
  • Pax can grow skills: reusable know-how saved as ordinary files that you can read, edit, and explicitly approve before they guide future work.
  • Take any Pax conversation with you: export it as a readable Markdown note or a complete transcript, choosing exactly which parts to include.
  • Lock elements on a slide and its structure stays put — locked panels resist every stray click, drag, and keyboard command.
Improved
  • Pax replies now tell you what actually got made: clean summaries of created and changed files instead of a play-by-play of every tool call.
  • The desktop window follows your theme all the way to the titlebar — light stays light, dark stays dark.
  • The Mac app no longer interrupts your session with system keychain prompts.
  • Connect requests accepted while you were offline now complete on their own once you are back.
Fixed
  • Drag and drop works again throughout the desktop app — board cards, file organizing, all of it.
  • Sign in with Apple on the Mac app hands off to your browser and completes reliably.
  • Pax conversations and pending actions sync faithfully between devices, and Pax on Gemini no longer loses steps when replaying tool work.
  • A sync hiccup no longer piles up repeated failure notifications, and opening the app with an expired session lands on sign-in instead of an error.
v1.82 August 14, 2026

Sharper slides, steadier sound

Slides learn marquee selection, boards get a proper card menu, and recording becomes something you never have to think about again.

New
  • Drag a marquee in Slides to grab several objects at once and move them as one.
  • Board cards in Sheets carry a context menu now, right where your cursor already is.
Improved
  • Recording is dependable on every platform: memos finalize completely before saving, and files carry their true audio format so they play cleanly outside blackbear too.
  • Ambient sound and playback run cooler. We fixed a class of leaks that could quietly double the audio engine and work your machine harder than intended.
v1.81 August 12, 2026

Sheets that reach outward, history that tells the truth

Sheet rows connect to real tasks, events, and people. Version history is rebuilt end-to-end: leaner on your device, encrypted across your devices, and honest about what restore brings back.

New
  • Connect a Sheet row to the rest of your life: link rows to real tasks and calendar events with full forms, track them from either side, and save repeat flows as one-click row action templates.
  • Sheets learn people and tags: columns can reference actual people (including a real owner) and your real tags, not just text that looks like them.
  • CSV and Excel, in and out: import a spreadsheet and choose exactly where it lands, or export your sheet, powered by the same native core on every platform.
  • Version history, rebuilt: files keep lean checkpoints, restore brings back the complete file honestly, and snapshot content syncs between your devices under end-to-end encryption.
  • The Reader opens up to Pax: they can now read whole books and documents in careful bounded passes, with deep reads running in a background worker so the app never stutters.
Improved
  • Reading on the phone got a chrome polish, Sheets adopt the mobile File Card, and linked-row dialogs fit small screens properly.
  • New sheets can set up their columns at creation, and boards answer to friendly aliases in search.
  • Inline references and note alignment in the editor got a careful pass.
Fixed
  • Calendar recurrences handle their edge cases, and infinitely repeating events stay visible.
  • A workbook emptied on two devices at once recovers instead of vanishing, and sheets reopen on a page that still exists.
  • Binary media like audio and images survives a trip through the trash.
v1.80 August 2, 2026

Pax on your subscription, on your terms

Bring your ChatGPT subscription to Pax, decide exactly what they can see, and hold the reins on every run.

New
  • Sign in with ChatGPT: if you already have a ChatGPT subscription, Pax can run on it. A quick device-code login on web or desktop, no API key required.
  • Decide exactly what Pax can see. Mark any file, folder, or tag as open or off-limits with a right-click, then audit every marking in one place under Settings → Pax.
  • Slash commands arrive in Pax chat: type / for actions instead of hunting through menus, under a reworked, tidier header.
  • You hold the reins on every run: set how many turns Pax may take per request, and stop them mid-flight with a Stop that actually cancels.
Improved
  • Every model now wears an honest data-boundary label (on-device, zero-retention cloud, or cloud) so you know where a request goes before you send it.
  • Per-request budget ceilings keep spending where you set it.
  • Key setup tells the truth while it loads: no more flash of “no API key” when one is safely stored.
v1.79 July 27, 2026

The phone gets out of the way, and sign-in stays put

Opening a file on your phone now leads with the content itself, and your session quietly takes care of its own upkeep.

New
  • The File Card arrives on mobile: title, details, and actions live in a compact card with a bottom sheet, so the editor fills your screen instead of desktop chrome squeezed small.
  • The blackbear CLI can sign in through your browser with a secure one-time handoff. No keys to copy around.
Improved
  • Sign-in got quietly sturdier: your session refreshes itself in the background and carries across restarts, so the app asks for your attention far less often.
  • Desk’s type filters wear the right icon for every file format.
v1.78 July 23, 2026

A smoother way in, and a quieter sync

Apple Sign-In and Face ID make the iPhone app feel native from the first screen, while sync, search, focus mode, and mobile layout get a careful stability pass.

New
  • Sign in with Apple is built into the iPhone app, from first-time sign-in to Account settings, using Apple’s native authorization sheet.
  • Unlock your encrypted vault with Face ID after setting it up. Your passphrase still protects the vault; biometrics give you a faster way back in on your device.
Improved
  • Focus mode is quieter across notes, audio, books, sheets, and slides: file metadata gets out of the way while the essential editor header stays available.
  • Onboarding and navigation now respect iPhone safe areas throughout, with more breathing room around bottom actions and tabs.
  • The iPhone app carries blackbear’s proper icon and clearer account/about language.
Fixed
  • Sync conflict alerts now wait for the full sync cycle to settle, then clear themselves when newer changes have already resolved the conflict.
  • Global search no longer goes blank when an imported calendar event has no description.
  • Face ID, microphone, and camera permissions are described correctly to iOS, preventing the privacy-related startup crash seen in early TestFlight builds.
  • The production reader bundle no longer carries a sample book that belongs only in tests.
v1.77 July 13, 2026

Files on the canvas, friends at the door

The drawing canvas becomes a project board, # and @ reference anything inline — and the people you invite can join you without paying.

New
  • Put files on a drawing canvas. Notes, docs, sheets, and pictures become live cards you can arrange spatially — drag them in from Desk, watch their content render in place, double-click to open one beside the board. A shared canvas carries its embedded files with it, and PNG export renders what the cards actually show.
  • Type # to tag and @ to mention, right in your notes. Completion offers matches or creates on the spot, and placement carries meaning: a tag on a heading covers its section, on a line covers that block. TagView gathers those exact places with jump-to anchors, and [[title]] completion rides the same rails.
  • Sheets grow tags and person columns — reference real people and tags as chips in your tables, with names resolving wherever the sheet travels.
  • Invite anyone — they don’t need a paid account. Someone who follows your invite link on a free account can message you, collaborate on your files, follow your timeline, and join your calls. You host; everyone you invite participates free.
  • On desktop, your data’s foundation moved into a natively encrypted database with a silent one-time migration — stronger custody for your content, out of reach of browser storage cleanup.
Improved
  • Lightweight markdown previews render the full language now — tables, task lists, quotes, and links, everywhere excerpts appear.
  • Like counts expand to names — see who, not just how many.
  • Saving a calendar event asks how to notify each person — invites go out per-person, on the channel you choose.
  • Tables in notes select within the cell first (⌘A), and in-editor search got blackbear’s own panel.
  • Timeline posts can be text-only, and the composer previews images before you post.
Fixed
  • Guests can open files shared with them right after connecting — no more waiting for a key that already arrived.
  • Jumping to a heading the moment a note opens lands on the heading, not the top.
  • Canvas selection stays crisp on retina displays, scroll position survives reopening, and connectors bind cleanly to embedded cards.
  • A brand-new stream file seeds its starter correctly and opens with a short in-editor guide.
v1.76 July 7, 2026

A feed for your people, and programs for your files

Connect grows personal timelines, Streams make your files programmable, the app splits into panes — and voice memos transcribe without leaving your machine. (This one gathers up everything shipped since mid-June.)

New
  • Post to your people. Connect grows personal timelines — write a post, attach pictures or whole files, and the people who follow you see it in their feed. Content travels end-to-end encrypted and arrives real: tap to enlarge, read the full piece, save your own copy. Likes and comments ride the same private channels.
  • Follow with a link or a QR code — you decide what the grant covers before it leaves your hands. Connecting makes the follow mutual by default, and existing contacts upgrade to timelines in one tap.
  • Streams: a file that’s a small program. Write TypeScript with real completions, hover docs, and inline diagnostics; run it in a sandbox against your own files; and approve every proposed change, one by one, before anything is touched.
  • Split the app into panes. A note beside a sheet beside today’s plan — every surface can open in a pane, with keyboard shortcuts and URLs that remember your layout.
  • Voice memos transcribe on your device. Desktop gains a native Whisper engine — audio becomes text without your voice leaving the machine, and audio embeds in notes carry the full transcript.
  • Calendar invites go out as real email with an RSVP round-trip, and People can be created on their own — with email and phone links that just work.
Improved
  • A two-pane Create New modal, g-prefix navigation sequences, a global new-file chord, and view cycling — the keyboard drives the whole app now.
  • Search results show readable, format-aware snippets with scope pills — never raw data fragments.
  • Remote cursors in shared documents track instantly — the lag is gone.
  • Clicking below images and audio embeds places the cursor where you meant, and table cells render inline markdown without click drift.
  • Calendar events can carry all-day reminders, in a cleaner form.
Fixed
  • Shared-file membership, invites, and acceptance state persist reliably across devices — accepting sticks, whatever order sync arrives in.
  • System folders (Home, Templates) can’t be deleted by accident.
  • The file back button survives long journeys, and follow relationships show names instead of ghost conversations.
  • Onboarding imports carry your content only — app system state never rides along.
v1.75 June 18, 2026

Pictures, and a place for everything that’s happening

Images become real files you can edit and share, and the app finally tells you when something needs you.

New
  • Images are a first-class file type. Bring a picture in and work it: crop, rotate, flip, straighten, adjustment sliders, and filter presets, with undo/redo and zoom/pan. None of it is destructive: your original is always intact. Download in PNG, JPEG, or WebP.
  • Edit images together. An image can be shared and co-edited live, end-to-end encrypted, the same way your documents are. Edits travel, and a shared image lands as a real file on the other side.
  • A Notification Center. One place for what’s happening: connect requests, collaboration invites, and shared files, with an actionable inbox you can accept or decline right there. Quiet bells on Desk and Today mean nothing waits unseen.
  • See who’s asking. A connect request can carry a sealed introduction, so you know who’s reaching out before you accept, with an anonymous option for anyone who’d rather stay unnamed. Names never touch our servers in the clear.
Improved
  • Shared files behave like a drive. A dedicated Shared Files space, grouped by who you’re sharing with, and you can share a whole folder, not just a file, with new files in it shared as you go.
  • Send a file as a snapshot. Hand someone a point-in-time copy straight from the file menu; they get a clean card to receive it.
  • One file menu everywhere. Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawing, and Images now share the same file bar: consistent actions, folder and tag controls, send, and download wherever you are.
  • Pax speaks more models. OpenAI joins Anthropic and Gemini in the app (GPT-5.4 Mini by default), with each provider’s key kept in your encrypted Account Keychain. Pax can now edit Markdown notes directly, with find/replace and an outline.
Fixed
  • Chat stays pinned to the bottom when you open it, even while media is still loading.
  • Image filters replace cleanly instead of stacking, and the edit trays anchor where they should, with no first-open flash.
  • Pax stays put in their dock as the sidebar settles.
v1.74 June 11, 2026

Transparency, and a den for Pax

A release about being able to see what your app is doing, and about our bear getting a home of their own.

New
  • Sidebar health beacon + Transparency panel: connection, sync, and storage status at a glance, with a diagnostics view when you want the details.
  • Pax has a den: a custom cave glyph appears in the dock whenever they’re away.
Improved
  • Calendar scrolling is noticeably smoother; month grid scrolling is now fully compositor-driven.
  • Cold offline boots recover on their own: the app reconnects and reconciles without a reload, and a watchdog keeps flaky networks from holding the boot overlay hostage.
Fixed
  • Week view header now follows the selected week’s month.
  • Sidebar collapse/expand settles cleanly: no transient jumps, and Pax never leaves their dock.
  • Messaging reconnects promptly after sign-in instead of waiting on a stale connection.
v1.73 June 10, 2026

Sharing grows teeth

Shared files now have real, enforceable membership, and Pax runs on the Rust engine everywhere.

New
  • Remove a single person from a shared file. Access is revoked with a full key rotation, not just hidden.
  • Removed members find out: a clear notice, and their local copy is cleaned up, even if the file is closed at the time.
  • Viewer roles are enforced at the input layer: read-only surfaces with a View-only indicator across Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawing.
  • Share roles are backed by verifiable, signed capability grants: what the dialog says is what the system enforces.
Improved
  • Pax now executes through the Rust engine on every platform, and picked up entity-aware tagging, smarter fuzzy matching, and awareness of the page you’re on.
Fixed
  • A rare case where Account Keychain entries could be lost when devices merged.
  • Free → paid upgrades reliably backfill all of your content, even if you sign out right after upgrading.
v1.72 June 8, 2026

Shared images, tidier accounts

Images in shared documents finally travel with the document, encrypted end-to-end.

New
  • Images in shared Docs and Slides sync across accounts, end-to-end encrypted; collaborators see the pictures, not just the prose.
  • Daily templates on Today are editable: shape the day’s scaffold to how you actually work.
Improved
  • Sign-out is a real teardown: per-account storage is cleanly separated and fully cleared.
  • Integration credentials moved into the encrypted Account Keychain.
  • Document printing: true print fidelity, including colors under highlights and clean page breaks.
Fixed
  • Sheets keep per-cell formatting when you edit a value or formula.
  • “Stop sharing” is available from Sheet, Drawing, and Slides dialogs.
v1.71 June 5, 2026

Sheets on the Rust kernel

The spreadsheet formula engine is now the same Rust engine everywhere: app, CLI, and collaborators all compute the same truth.

New
  • Formula evaluation runs on the Rust render kernel (via WASM), replacing ~2,700 lines of TypeScript with one engine shared across the app and the bb CLI.
  • Board view grew up: honest cards, row detail and editing, a configuration modal, and editable, reorderable select options.
  • Sign in with email or phone; one field, either works.
Improved
  • Percent formatting displays the way you expect (0.27 → 27%) and survives configuration edits.
  • Column widths and floating-chart geometry persist and sync across devices.
Fixed
  • Calendar dates in sheets are timezone-stable.
  • The cell you’re editing saves when you click away.
v1.70 June 3, 2026

Slides go collaborative

Real-time, end-to-end encrypted collaborative editing comes to Slides.

New
  • Edit a deck together, live, with collaborator presence and claim-a-text-box so you’re never typing over each other. End-to-end encrypted, like everything else.
  • Workflows learned event-shaped schedule steps, so automations can key off your calendar.
  • New decks start with a title slide, and the new deck model brings free undo/redo.
Improved
  • Slides render through the Rust kernel, the same renderer the CLI uses.
  • Shared files now appear reliably on freshly added devices.
  • Page intros and notices flow through the notification system with sensible icons.
Fixed
  • Docs show collaborator display names instead of key fingerprints.
  • Sync no longer stalls on data it can’t decrypt; it sets problem rows aside and keeps moving.
v1.69 May 29, 2026

Sturdier live collaboration

A faster, more resilient transport under every shared editing session.

New
  • WebSocket-first transport for live collaboration, with graceful fallback.
  • Structured merge conflicts — when two edits truly collide, the merge is smarter and nothing is silently dropped.
Improved
  • Clear reconnection states and adaptive backoff under rate limits.
Fixed
  • A divergence bug in encrypted collaborative editing.
  • Sign-in credential linking (OAuth and phone) on desktop.
v1.68 May 27, 2026

Contacts with faces

Avatars arrive in messaging, exchanged privately, like everything else.

New
  • Contact avatars: profile pictures are exchanged through encrypted profile sharing and show up across messaging.
  • A credentials section in Account settings: see and manage how you sign in.
Improved
  • Contacts and profiles update reactively everywhere: change once, see it everywhere instantly.
  • Plan upgrades take effect immediately, no sign-out required.
  • Phone sign-in accepts the formats people actually type.
v1.67 May 23, 2026

Touch ID for the vault

Faster unlocks on the Mac, and a cleaner desktop foundation.

New
  • Biometric unlock: open your vault with Touch ID on macOS, with an inline toggle on the unlock screen.
Improved
  • Desktop app hardening around content security policies: local AI (Ollama), sandboxed previews, and plugin IPC all coexist cleanly.
Fixed
  • Release builds no longer open devtools.
  • Encrypted keychain entries reveal and copy correctly.
v1.66 May 22, 2026

Pages, pickers, and portraits

The page builder matures and your profile gets a face.

New
  • Profile avatar upload with a proper crop dialog: perfect circles, zoom that respects image bounds.
  • Page templates: drag-to-reorder blocks, an icon-and-image picker, and a smoother create-new-page flow.
Fixed
  • A batch of mobile and desktop build issues.
v1.65 May 17, 2026

The hardening sprint

A release almost entirely about strengthening the foundations: encryption boundaries, the keychain, and the engine under Pax.

New
  • Account Keychain entries are individually encrypted.
  • Runtime validation at every crypto boundary: the app verifies the shape of everything crossing into the encryption layer.
Improved
  • Pax’s engine completed its migration to Rust (with a new suite of contract tests to keep it honest).
  • Collaborative editing batches outbound updates for smoother sessions.
  • CI now runs a standing security audit on every build.
roll-up May 1–13, 2026

Early May — the week the CLI arrived

The first half of May brought blackbear’s biggest single drop: a Rust CLI built for agents, the Graph view, Store files for structured data, cryptographic authorship, the Discovery catalog, a redesigned landing page — and the end of the trial timer. The local app became free for everyone, with anonymous mode for those who want no account at all.

New
  • bb — a Rust CLI giving agents (and terminal humans) first-class access to notes, tasks, files, and sync.
  • Graph view: see your notes, tags, and documents as the web they actually are.
  • Store files: structured, schema’d data as a first-class file type.
  • Cryptographic authorship — every change attributable to the profile that made it.
  • Google OAuth sign-in alongside magic links.
Read the full Week 8 post
roll-up April 2026 · 110 releases

April — depth and dependability

April was a month of deep passes: Drawing, Documents, Reader, and Audio each got sustained attention measured in dozens of releases. Onboarding was rebuilt end to end, messaging internals were refactored for reliability, and the first Windows desktop work landed. Less flash, more floor.

Improved
  • Drawing: stability and precision across the infinite canvas.
  • Documents: WYSIWYG editing depth: tables, pagination, and print groundwork.
  • Reader: steadier EPUB/PDF handling and annotation polish.
  • Audio: recording and playback reliability.
  • Onboarding: rebuilt from the first screen up.
roll-up March 2026 · 107 releases

March — v1.0 and the first 107 releases

blackbear 1.0 shipped on March 3. Then we shipped 106 more times before the month ended. The core took shape in public: Sheets, Discover feeds, Pax, Drawing, Calendar, tables, and the sync engine that carries all of it. If you kicked the tires that month — thank you. You shaped what this became.

blackbear ships continuously — 305 releases and counting since March 2026. This page condenses the journey; the app updates itself.

Get blackbear