Release Notes

Version history, feature updates, and changelog for Umbra from version 0.5 onwards.

Welcome to the Umbra release notes. This page tracks major feature releases, visual improvements, performance optimizations, and bug fixes starting from Version 0.5.0 onwards.

Version 0.5.11

Released: October 2026 · Latest Release

Umbra 0.5.11 is a polish release: PDFs you open from your computer now open in a window of their own and keep the ticks, text and signatures you place on them, voice notes record at a proper level and play straight away, and a round of canvas fixes makes to-do lists, tables, shapes, connectors and Present behave the way you expect.

Highlights

1. PDFs in their own window

Open from Finder or Explorer: double-click a .pdf and it opens in a window that is only that file — no canvas, nothing added to any board. Changes are saved back into the file where it lies.
Placed items are saved: ticks, crosses, text, signatures and inserted pictures now stay in the PDF after you save. You can move, replace or delete them before and after saving.
Add text where you click: click the spot on the page and type there.
Signatures: draw one, or use a photo of your signature — the paper is removed and the ink colour kept.
A PDF block on a canvas still opens Umbra's own reader, exactly as before.

2. Voice notes

Louder, clearer recordings: the microphone now opens without echo cancellation, and the finished take is brought up to a comfortable speech level.
Plays straight after recording: no more waiting a few minutes before a fresh note would play.
Audible on playback: fixed a case where a note played in silence.

3. Canvas

To-do blocks grow as you add points, instead of clipping the list at the bottom edge.
Connect mode: the connection dots follow a card while you drag it.
Firmer table lines in the Table block and in tables inside notes, open or closed.
Tables in closed notes now preview as tables rather than rows of pipe characters, and the preview also draws heading levels 4–6 and nested lists.
Document blocks can be selected and moved before they have a file, and the empty gap at the left of the Document and Sheets ribbon is gone inside a canvas.

4. Shapes

One rotate handle, bottom-left, so it no longer sits on top of the resize grip.
Flowchart symbols take a label: double-click (or press Enter) to start typing, with black or white text.
Hold Shift while resizing to keep a shape's proportions.
Outline width is respected, and short labels on small shapes stay on one line.

5. Presenting

The first slide fits the screen the moment you press Present, instead of sitting off to one side until you move on.
A slide number that points past the end of the deck (after deleting slides) no longer leaves the board unframed.

6. Templates

Pitch Deck (Cista) refined: white slide backgrounds, larger icon discs, and cleaner headings and spacing on the Problems and Solutions slides.
Engineering Sprint & Kanban Board now has a Backlog column, a sprint rituals checklist and a live infrastructure budget ledger.
The Annual Personal Budget template has been retired.

Version 0.5.0

Released: September 2026

Umbra 0.5.0 is a major milestone release introducing full-screen calendar scheduling and daily journaling, an interactive 3D flashcard study engine, a brand-new productivity widgets suite, high-speed local AI agent workflows, and deep canvas performance tuning.

Highlights & Major Features

1. Full-Screen Calendar & Daily Journal Workspace

Spatial Calendar Block: Place self-contained monthly calendar blocks directly onto the canvas to ground ideas and sprints in time.
Full-Screen Workspace: Double-click the header or press ⤢ to expand into a dedicated planning surface with Month, Week, Day, and List timeline views.
Date Detail & Journal Pop-up: Click any date cell to open the day planner panel with scheduled events, start/end time pickers, emoji mood tags (🔥, 😊, 💡), written reflection logs, audio notes, and desktop alerts.

2. Interactive 3D Flashcards Deck

Spaced Repetition on Canvas: Create study decks with 3D flip animation for memorizing formulas, vocabulary, and technical concepts.
Two-Sided Editing: Independent front and back card faces supporting markdown typography and formulas.
Deck Controls: Effortlessly shuffle, browse cards with count indicators (1/4), and review study decks without third-party apps.

3. New Productivity Widgets Suite

Focus & Pomodoro Timer: Circular progress visualization with preset intervals (Focus 25m, Short Break 5m, Long Break 15m), cycle tracking, and audio chimes.
Streak Counter: Track daily habits and coding sprints with flame badges, current streak counters, personal best records, and one-tap daily completion buttons.
World Clock: Redesigned analog clock dials with dual light/dark day-night faces, live local time offsets, and multi-timezone hub monitoring.
Web Bookmark: Paste any URL (such as https://think-umbra.fyi/) to automatically fetch OpenGraph titles, preview banners, favicons, and direct launch buttons.

Fit to Frame (Fit to View): Instantly frame selected elements or zoom to fit your entire board layout.
Font Inspector & Picker Panel: Customize typography with live preview swatches, font size scales, line heights, and weights across all text elements.
Minimap Integration: Smooth spatial orientation across large boards with real-time viewport framing.
Platform Shortcut Badges: Native macOS (⌘) and Windows (Ctrl) keybinding tooltips across the application interface.

5. Local AI Agent Performance Boost

Gemini CLI (agy) Stream Translation: Real-time streaming JSON output translation into clean output logs with conversation resumption support (--conversation).
MCP Tool Signature Primer: Built-in tool signatures injected directly into the initial model prompt, cutting tool call latency by eliminating repetitive schema file inspections.
Streamlined Bridge Protocol: Simplified MCP instructions removing unnecessary subprocess polling and source-reading overhead.

6. Website & Documentation Refresh

Clean Empty-Canvas Documentation: Comprehensive documentation suite featuring pristine, high-resolution screenshots isolated on empty canvases.
Opaque Dark Mode Blocks: Solid card fills for platform download options with background wave occlusion.
Quick-Access Navigation: Streamlined top navigation and unified documentation search.

Previous Versions

Release notes prior to version 0.5.0 (0.4.x and earlier) have been archived.