[github-actions]

Prerelease v1.0.2-rc.2

Merging this publishes a GitHub prerelease, never the Latest release. The images
are tagged v1.0.2-rc.2 and not latest, and the installers attached to it are
pinned to this version.

Before merging:

• The notes below describe what this rc changes

Merging checks this commit before it builds: the full suite, or, when this PR
changes only the release files, main's passing CI on the commit it merges onto.
There is nothing to check about CI here.

**Before upgrading.** No migrations run in this release: the database stays at
`0088_approval_reviewer_guidance`, and a 1.0.1 database is used as it is. Upgrading from 1.0.0 or
0.3.x runs the migrations listed under 1.0.1, and a database that has run them does not go back:
restore the backup taken before the upgrade instead. Three things change for an existing OpenBot
Desktop installation:
- On Windows OpenBot now always runs in a Podman machine of its own, `openbot`, beside any of
  yours, and on a Mac it does when yours is rootless, after asking to pause it (below). An
  installation that ran in a machine of yours starts fresh in `openbot`, and its earlier data stays
  in your machine.
- At setup and at every Start, a Docker Desktop or Podman too old to run OpenBot is updated
  (below). Docker Desktop quits while it updates, which stops its containers; the ones that were
  running are started again afterwards.
- OpenBot Desktop's bundled CLI moves to `copilotkit@2e1c519` (below). The back end stays on
  CopilotKit Intelligence 0.16.0-rc.10.

### OpenBot Desktop

- **Setup says what self-contained means up front, and asks about usage data last.** The first
  screen, "Set up OpenBot (self-contained)", says this version runs entirely on your computer,
  backend included, that setup takes between 1 and 10 minutes depending on your internet speed,
  and that in production OpenBot for Business runs on your own infrastructure with Kubernetes, or on
  OpenBot Cloud, with a link to book a demo. The usage-data notice moved off
  it to the foot of the last screen, Finishing setup, as a small checkbox, checked by default as
  before: it is the same setting as Settings > General > Privacy > Share usage data. The Account
  step's heading is now "Get your free license key".
- **OpenBot uses its own Podman machine when yours can't run it, and leaves yours as it is.** A
  Podman machine made with `podman machine init` is rootless, and OpenBot used it and stopped at
  "Change this computer's setup" because local Intelligence needs rootful Podman. On Windows even a
  rootful machine of yours left chat unable to reach OpenBot's back end. OpenBot now makes and uses
  its own rootful machine, `openbot`, as on a computer with none. On Windows it runs beside yours,
  which keeps running untouched, and never takes Docker's default pipe (`docker_engine`), so your
  Docker tools and Docker Desktop keep reaching what they did. On a Mac, where Podman runs one
  machine at a time, OpenBot asks before it pauses your rootless machine while it runs (**Pause my
  Podman**), and Quit starts yours again with its containers. Docker, and a rootful machine of
  yours on a Mac, are used as before. Your default Podman connection is never changed. An
  installation that ran in your own machine starts fresh in `openbot`; its old data stays in your
  machine.
- **OpenBot updates Docker Desktop or Podman when it is too old to run OpenBot.** A computer with
  Docker Desktop 4.27 got through setup and then stopped at Start with "Compose config exited with
  exit status: 15", an error nobody could act on. OpenBot now checks the engine at setup and at
  every Start, before Compose reads anything, and updates one that is too old for you: Docker
  Compose before 2.27.2 (Docker Desktop before 4.32), or Podman before 6.1. Docker Desktop's update
  comes from Docker's own update feed, is checked against Docker's checksums and signature, and
  installs over the one you have, keeping its images, containers and volumes; the containers that
  were running before are started again once it is back. Podman's is OpenBot's own pinned
  installer over the old one, and every Podman machine that was running before, yours included, is
  running afterwards with its containers. A Mac asks for your password, and an all-users Docker
  Desktop on Windows for Windows' approval. The row for what's installing in the background says
  why it is updating and shows the update's own lines in full, and the Account step waits for the
  update and says so. Where an update can't be done for you, such as a Mac or PC too old for the
  newest Docker Desktop, or an Intel Mac with an old Podman (Podman publishes its Mac package for
  Apple silicon only), one plain step says what to do. Separately, the Compose file now starts on
  an older Compose too: with no harness Bot picked, Compose 2.25 and older refused the whole
  project.
- **A Podman machine that stops answering is restarted.** A Podman machine OpenBot uses that had
  lost its Docker API failed setup and Start until you restarted it yourself, and Quit could not
  stop the back end, so the next launch said "OpenBot had trouble shutting down last time." At every
  check, including Start and Retry after a relaunch, and before Stop and Quit, such a machine is now
  stopped and started once, your default machine included. A failure while setup runs behind the
  Account step now has Try again.
- **Start says in the log what it is waiting on, and why it gave up.** A Start that waited five
  minutes for OpenBot's services and then said "OpenBot didn't get ready in time" left nothing in
  the log in between. Each wait now writes what it asked (the address or the back end's status),
  each new answer and the same one again once a minute, and why it ended, with how long it took and
  the last answer.
- **The big downloads start on the first screen, before you click Install.** Nothing used to
  download until Install, and then one thing at a time: on a new Mac, Podman, then the 937 MB
  engine image with no progress shown, then 1.1 GB of OpenBot's software. Now the engine image,
  Podman's installer, the deployment and, when Docker or Podman already runs, OpenBot's software
  start downloading as soon as the first screen shows, side by side, while you sign in and enter
  your Mac password. The first screen says how far they are ("Downloading OpenBot. About 3 minutes
  left.", with the bytes under a bar), and the row for what's installing in the background carries
  on with it. A download stopped by quitting carries on from where it stopped next time,
  and every file is checked against its pinned digest before it is used. Podman builds its machine
  from the downloaded image instead of fetching its own. With less free disk than OpenBot needs,
  the first screen says how much is free and how much is needed, and the downloads start once
  there is room. Nothing is installed before you are asked.
- **OpenBot's own software downloads on the first screen too, before there is anything to run it.**
  On a new Mac or PC, or with Docker Desktop not running, OpenBot's images (about 1.1 GB for the
  default Bot) waited for the engine to start, then downloaded behind it. They now download from
  the first screen with everything else, into the same cache, checked against their digests and
  carried on after a quit. Once the engine answers, Install loads them into it, so the step after
  it no longer downloads them. Anything that didn't download or load is downloaded then, as before.
- **An update downloads before you click Update.** As soon as a new version of OpenBot is out,
  OpenBot Desktop downloads what it runs in the background while you keep working: the parts for
  the Bots you use, and the back end's when it changes too, kept until you update. Clicking Update
  then stops OpenBot, backs it up, updates it and starts it again, with nothing big left to
  download. The update offer, Settings › This computer and the setup window say the new version
  "is downloading in the background (40%).", then that it "is ready to install. It takes a few
  minutes." It downloads one part at a time, waits while OpenBot starts, stops or updates, never
  stops or restarts anything you are using, and downloads nothing when the disk is short of room
  (the Desktop log says why, and the update downloads as before). Candidates and internal builds,
  which do not update themselves, download nothing ahead.
- **downloads.copilotkit.ai serves each release's `desktop-images.json`.** It answered 403, so the
  list of a release's images could only come from GitHub.
- **The Status window, Settings > This computer and the Install step say what's running in plain
  words.** The Status window, opened from the menu bar or the system tray, and Settings > This
  computer said "Back end", "Container engine", "Podman" or "Docker" and the build's commit and
  time. Both now name each part by what it does: App, OpenBot's services, and Software OpenBot runs
  on, with "App and Bots" for what was "Front end and Bots". They show the version on its own, and
  the engine, the build and Docker's container names stay in Copy diagnostics and the logs. A
  stopped app on This computer says it isn't using memory, where it said its memory couldn't be
  measured. On the Install step, the rest of OpenBot downloads alongside OpenBot's own download,
  and both said they were in progress at once ("Step 2 of 4" and "Step 3 of 4"). The step now shows
  one step at a time: the rest of OpenBot is step 3, shown once step 2 is done, as far along as it
  got meanwhile.
- **Windows setup no longer opens Microsoft's "Welcome to Windows Subsystem for Linux" window, and
  the installer asks plainly to close a running OpenBot.** The welcome window opened partway
  through setup, the first time OpenBot's Podman machine was made on a computer with no Linux
  distribution. It isn't OpenBot's and isn't needed, so OpenBot now marks it as already seen for
  you before it makes the machine. Installing over a running OpenBot said "OpenBot is running!
  Click OK to kill it". It now says "OpenBot is open. Click OK to close it and continue."
- **Setup on a new Windows computer waits for OpenBot's Podman machine's network, sets it up again
  when it doesn't come up, and asks for a Windows restart when only that fixes it.** On the first
  boot after Windows Subsystem for Linux was turned on, the machine's network could fail to come
  up. Accepting the license agreement stopped at "OpenBot couldn't prepare this computer to run it.
  Try again.", and Try again then failed the downloads, again and again, until Windows restarted.
  OpenBot now waits up to a minute for the machine's network, checks it again before the
  downloads, and restarts its own machine once when it is still down, which sets the network up
  from scratch. A Podman machine of yours that shares that network is never stopped. If it is still
  down, setup shows "Restart Windows to finish", with Restart now, instead of Try again.
- **OpenBot stays behind your browser while you sign in, and opens where you left it.** On
  Windows, OpenBot came in front of the browser partway through setup while you were typing your
  email to sign in. While the browser sign-in is open it now stays where it is, and comes forward
  once when the sign-in ends, since the license agreement is next (flashing in the taskbar if
  Windows won't bring it forward). A reopened window showed blank at Windows' default place for a
  moment and then jumped to where you left it; it now opens at its saved size and place from the
  first frame, and in the middle of the main screen when the screen it was on is gone.
- **The Account step leads with OpenBot.** Its header reads "OpenBot by CopilotKit" and its
  heading "Self-contained OpenBot". It says this version of OpenBot runs self-contained on this
  computer and needs a free license key, and that your conversations and files stay on this
  computer. The button reads "Sign in for a free local license key", and CopilotKit's logo no
  longer heads the step.
- **Setup says OpenBot, not CopilotKit.** Signing in, the license agreement and the usage-data
  notice named CopilotKit on its own: "Sign in to CopilotKit", "Checking your CopilotKit
  account…", "accept the CopilotKit license agreement", "OpenBot sends CopilotKit usage data". They
  now say OpenBot ("Sign in to OpenBot", "your OpenBot account"), and "OpenBot by CopilotKit" where
  the company is named: the license agreement, what signing in sends, and the copyright in the
  Windows installer and the Mac About box. The sign-in a stopped setup asks for is headed by
  OpenBot by CopilotKit instead of CopilotKit's logo, and Settings > General > Share usage data
  says the same as the first screen.
- **Usage data also says when setup looks stuck, or its window stops answering.** A hang is not a
  failure, so `setup_failed` never said it. A step of the back end's setup or update, OpenBot's own
  start, or OpenBot updating itself that runs three times as long as it usually takes, and two
  minutes over at least, now sends one `setup_stalled` with the step, its usual time and how long it
  has run. A setup window that stops taking what OpenBot sends it for over 30 seconds while it is on
  screen (as one did on Windows until a click or Alt+Tab) sends one `ui_stalled` with how long it
  lasted, and the Desktop log says `[ui] the window stopped answering for 42s during
  start_machine`. Minimised, hidden or covered windows never count. Step names and seconds only,
  and nothing at all when usage data is off.
- **A CopilotKit back end set up in your home folder no longer takes over OpenBot's.** Someone who
  once ran `copilotkit local setup` in their home folder, or any folder above `~/OpenBot`, had that
  back end resumed for OpenBot: the CLI looks for a back end in the folder it runs in and in every
  folder above it. It then wrote OpenBot's connection settings into that folder's `.env`, and Start
  stopped with "The connection settings do not match the backend that was set up". OpenBot now
  tells the CLI to use exactly `~/OpenBot`, so it sets up a back end of its own and connects
  `~/OpenBot/.env`, and the other folder's back end and `.env` are left alone. OpenBot also counts
  a back end as its own, to stop with Stop and Quit, only when the CLI records it for `~/OpenBot`;
  one it was handed for another folder is never stopped.
- **Connecting the back end a second time no longer stops setup.** Setup Retry, going Back and
  forward through setup, and reinstalling over an existing install connect `~/OpenBot` to its back
  end again. After the first connection OpenBot writes the back end's addresses at `127.0.0.1`
  where the CLI wrote `localhost`, and the CLI then refused every later connection with "App
  settings changed after connection was planned", so setup could not finish. The CLI now treats
  `localhost`, `127.0.0.1` and `[::1]` with the same port as the same address, connects again, and
  leaves OpenBot's addresses as they are. An address changed to another port or host is still
  refused.
- **CopilotKit CLI `copilotkit@2e1c519`.** OpenBot Desktop's bundled CLI moves to the production
  build of Intelligence `2e1c51900`: `6bfaa0f5c`, which added `telemetry link`, with `--app-path`
  added to its `local` commands and a second `local connect` accepted after OpenBot rewrote its
  addresses to `127.0.0.1`. It keeps Intelligence 0.16.0-rc.10 and CopilotKit v1.85.0 templates.

### Conversations

- **A new conversation's first message starts one run.** Every first message started a second run
  on the Bot about a second after yours: the CopilotKit runtime named the new conversation by
  running the same Bot again on a title prompt. On a Bot OpenBot runs in a harness, such as the
  Personal Assistant, that was two runs at once, and where they overlapped the answer could come
  back garbled. The runtime no longer names conversations. OpenBot still titles them itself, as
  before, so the sidebar is unchanged, and no model run nobody asked for is spent on each new
  conversation.
- **A Bot draws a chart or a table only from results it has read, and a form stops at the first
  field that fails.** A model that calls tools in parallel, such as Claude Opus, asked for its
  searches and the chart and table meant to show them in one step, so they were drawn with figures
  it hadn't read, and it then said so under them. A chart, table, card or approval asked for in the
  same step as another tool is no longer shown, not even for a moment, and the Bot draws it again
  from the results. One on its own, or beside other components, draws as before. A Bot's computer
  actions in one step run one at a time, in the order asked for, and stop at the first that fails:
  the rest are reported to the Bot as not run, and it looks at the page again. Every Bot is told to
  batch only tool calls that don't depend on each other. This follows Anthropic's guidance for
  parallel tool use and holds whichever model a Bot runs on, in conversations and in routines.
- **A Claude Agent SDK Bot answers the first question of a conversation however many apps it
  holds.** Asked one question, a Personal Assistant on the Claude Agent SDK searched the web and
  Notion and then stopped with "Claude turned down the request because this conversation is too
  long for the model". The harness's Claude Code did not know the Claude 5.5 models and held them to
  a 200K window (they have 1M), and it sent every one of the Bot's app tools' definitions with every
  request, which took a Bot holding a few apps most of the way there before any result came back.
  The provider's window now decides, the Bot looks its app tools up when it needs them (about a
  fifth of the size for 128 tools), no tool result is replayed longer than 100,000 characters, and a
  turn the model still refuses as too long is tried once more with every tool result cut to its
  start, each saying how to ask for the rest. A built-in Bot on a Claude plan gets the same window
  and limits. The message still appears for a conversation that really is too long.
- **Talk to OpenBot without a transcription provider.** The message box shows a microphone on
  every OpenBot, not only where `TRANSCRIPTION_PROVIDER` is set. Click it and your words appear in
  the box as you speak; the microphone turns into Stop. Stop, or Enter, stops listening and keeps
  the words in the box without sending them, and the next Enter sends. Typing while it listens
  stops it too. In OpenBot Desktop the words come from your computer's own speech recognition, on
  the device (Apple's Speech framework on a Mac, the Windows speech recognizer on Windows), and a
  Mac asks once for the microphone and speech recognition. In a browser they come from the
  browser's speech recognition, and a browser without one (Firefox) shows no microphone. Chrome's
  speech recognition sends the audio to Google's speech service. With `TRANSCRIPTION_PROVIDER` set
  nothing changes: OpenBot records and your server transcribes, as before.
- **Picking a model closes the picker and puts you back in the message box.** The model picker
  stayed open after a model was picked, so the next click, meant for the message box, could land
  on another model in the list. Picking a model now closes the picker and puts the cursor in the
  message box. A model with thinking levels keeps the picker open on its levels alone, with the
  other models and the search gone, and picking a level closes it.

### Smaller changes

- "Backend" is one word everywhere OpenBot shows it: OpenBot Desktop's Status window, tray and
  messages, the app, the server's messages and the Recorder. Desktop's Status window heads its card
  "Backend" where it said "Back end".
- The Personal Assistant on a framework picked in setup reads "Everyday life agent. (powered by a
  LangChain agent; you can bring your own agent from any stack.)" under its name (with its own
  framework's name), on a new install and on an existing one that kept "Powered by LangChain
  (LangGraph)" after an upgrade. Any other Bot OpenBot subtitled under LangChain's earlier names
  reads "Powered by LangChain". Only what a person sees changes: nothing stored changes, a Bot is
  told its subtitle as before, and words a person wrote stay theirs. A Bot's page shows a long
  subtitle on up to three lines.
- The "Always ask before making changes" switch is called "Extra vigilant", on Welcome, in
  Settings → Approvals and on a Bot's Tools section in the personal edition. Its description,
  behaviour and default are unchanged.
- Welcome's permissions section is shorter: "Choose when Bots ask", one sentence saying Bots ask
  before they delete, send, share, post or pay in your apps or on websites, the Extra vigilant
  switch, and where to change it later. Allowing an action always, passwords and a Bot's own
  workspace are still explained in Settings → Approvals.
- In the dark theme, the Bot's orb at the top of a conversation no longer has a light ring around
  it or its pattern showing through it, and its glow is no longer cut off at the edge of the
  conversation.
- In OpenBot Desktop's setup, the row for what's installing in the background keeps one height
  whatever it says, so the step's button under it (such as Continue on the AI step) no longer moves
  up and back on its own.
- OpenBot and OpenBot for Business carry a small trademark sign (™) where they stand as a brand:
  the name beside the logo in the sidebar and in each skin, the onboarding header, the OpenBot for
  Business title and menu entry, and the OpenBot Desktop setup window. Mentions in sentences stay
  plain, a deployment with its own product name shows none, and screen readers read the name once.