Changelog

Every release of Kepler, newest first.

v0.8.0-pre-3

Pre-releaseAugust 2026

Smol Saturday Drop

This is still a pre-release of 0.8.0. You will encounter more bugs than usual.

New

1
  • Wick stopwatches (first version)

Fixed

1
  • Dialog on restart/shutdown not being focused

v0.8.0-pre-2

Pre-releaseAugust 8, 2026

Smol Saturday Drop: Menubar Issue

This is still a pre-release of 0.8.0. You will encounter more bugs than usual.

Fixed

2
  • Workaround for crashes caused by macOS 27 in correlation with the menubar item
  • Expression plugins using wrong conversions with different units

v0.8.0-pre-1

Pre-releaseJuly 25, 2026

Saturday Drop: Emojis, Shortcuts and more

Emoji Picker is now available.

Shortcuts are now available in beta.

This is still a pre-release of 0.8.0. You will encounter more bugs than usual.

New

4
  • Emoji Picker
  • Shortcuts (beta)
  • Wick integration now supports adding timers
  • Web Search can be activated via Tab to see suggestions

Changed

1
  • Calculation and conversion results are now selectable and can be copied

Fixed

3
  • System Settings icons now have the same size as other icons
  • Cold-start appearance time of the LookAhead widget
  • Menubar item crashes

v0.8.0-pre

Pre-releaseJuly 2026

Saturday Drop: Let's plug it in

Plugins are regular npm packages. The store itself is a curated list of approved packages. Kepler loads that list, then checks npm for the latest version, description, and package download.

The catalog is cached locally, so you can still open the store while offline. Kepler will warn you that the list may not be up to date.

Before installing a package, Kepler verifies its SHA-512 checksum against the value published by npm. It also rejects archives containing symlinks, unsafe paths, or files that exceed configured size limits.

Kepler only extracts the files it needs: the plugin manifest and its entry point. Installs and updates are atomic, with the previous version restored if an update fails or crashes halfway through.

Updates that request additional permissions or network access require approval. Other updates can be applied automatically.

Later: install plugins directly from Git repositories, browse plugins and screenshots on the Kepler website, and install plugins from the website with one click.

New

2
  • Plugin Store: browse and install plugins without leaving Kepler
  • Delta Updates: download only the parts of an update that changed

Changed

4
  • Menu Bar Interaction: left-clicking the menu bar icon opens its menu; right-clicking opens Kepler
  • Search Ranking: exact matches now rank above fuzzy matches
  • Space Switching: Kepler remains on the Space where it was opened
  • Licensing: end-to-end licence checks through the new licence server

Fixed

3
  • Crash when connecting or disconnecting a dock during a display change
  • Launcher position after a display change or disconnected display
  • Wick wake-up behaviour when Wick is not active

v0.7.2

Wick integrationAugust 2026

Kepler x Wick

What is Wick? Wick is a beautifully designed clock app for Mac with timers, stopwatches, and alarms integrated into the menu bar and lock screen. Wick is made by Nate.

Takeaway: Going forward, this is the way I want to do Kepler: integrating with other apps to build a better experience, rather than trying to replace existing apps.

New

2
  • Support for timers using the Wick app
  • Button to turn on advanced logging for 24 hours

Changed

2
  • Removed integration with the native Clock app
  • Improved logging for better error debugging

Fixed

2
  • Favorite reordering not working
  • Closing Kepler via the menubar Quit action not working

v0.7.1

July 15, 2026

Midweek Patch: First Look at Clock

New

2
  • Clock plugin (first iteration)
  • Support for timers in LookAhead

Fixed

1
  • Favorites disappeared when using Arrow Down to expand Kepler in compact mode

v0.7.0

July 4, 2026

New

2
  • Context menu actions to move app and command results up or down
  • Context menu action to reset a result's ranking

Improved

3
  • CMD+Q is now blocked in the regular launcher window
  • Expressions: split and full-result view breakpoints
  • Smoother handoff between Expressions and the Currency Converter plugin

Fixed

3
  • Right-clicking a launcher entry now opens its context menu
  • Background and menu bar apps now show as running and can be quit
  • Expressions: duplicate heading in full-result view

v0.6.1

June 28, 2026

New

6
  • Use any OpenAI-compatible API
  • Use any model from Hugging Face
  • Set a custom search bar placeholder for plugins
  • Shortcut to open selected text directly in spellcheck
  • Native system actions plugin for locking, logging out, shutting down, and restarting
  • Clear clipboard history while keeping pinned entries

Improved

5
  • Marquee scrolling for long LookAhead titles now starts after one second of hovering
  • Updated the default local LLM to bartowski/google_gemma-3n-E4B-it-GGUF
  • Calendar lookahead shows 17:00 instead of 17
  • Weather lookahead shows H/L instead of High/Low
  • Calendar LookAhead now shows "+ x more" for events at the same time

Fixed

1
  • Calendar time spacing in LookAhead

v0.6.0

June 20, 2026

New

4
  • AI-powered spell checking (runs on-device, fully offline)
  • Active App Indicators with context menu actions to Quit or Force Quit applications
  • KeplerSystem integration with dedicated settings entry
  • Manual action to check for updates

Improved

3
  • Migrated to latest version of Clave for faster license verification
  • Refined LookAhead UI for long event titles with compact time formats
  • Improved context menu placement

Fixed

3
  • Search index recognition for Visual for Visual Studio Code
  • Search engine input field update upon selecting item
  • Liquid glass bug affecting toolbar and back-to-top button

v0.5.3

June 16, 2026

New

3
  • Quick actions toolbar at bottom of list
  • Panel expands to full height even with no apps
  • Logging for important errors

Improved

6
  • Refined Liquid Glass appearance
  • LookAhead now uses glassy design
  • Moved LookAhead indicator dots inside card
  • LookAhead scrolls only text instead of entire card
  • Improved weather integration for LookAhead
  • Improved calendar integration settings

Fixed

5
  • Liquid Glass adapting to background color
  • App indexing for apps inside subfolders
  • Scaling issues with plugin-provided icons
  • Padding in widget cards and section titles
  • Missing settings icons

v0.5.2

June 11, 2026

Fixed

1
  • Entering first letter caused slow feeling

v0.5.1

June 10, 2026

New

5
  • Back to Top button in clipboard gallery
  • Keyboard shortcuts to jump between result sections
  • Quit applications from Kepler
  • Find macOS System Settings entries
  • Option to disable the active plugin row

Improved

5
  • Redesigned Settings menu to match macOS System Settings
  • Google set as default search engine
  • Smoother LookAhead result cycling
  • Clipboard history moves copied items to front
  • Improved padding and spacing consistency

Fixed

6
  • Removed debounce causing delayed searches
  • Alignment of Open text
  • Tab cycling through LookAhead no longer triggers haptics
  • PluginHost automatic crash recovery
  • Inline autocomplete navigation with arrow keys
  • Maximum clipboard item count limits

v0.5.0

June 7, 2026

New

10
  • Plugin system for community plugins
  • Plugin SDK (NPM package)
  • Built-in clipboard manager
  • Gallery-style view for clipboard and plugins
  • Drag and drop support for File Search
  • Web Search plugin
  • AppleScript execution support
  • Weather plugin in Lookahead
  • Pinning clipboard entries feature
  • Multi-select and insert functionality

Improved

4
  • Completely redesigned settings UI
  • Improved Lookahead settings
  • Resolved views (translations, conversions) now inline
  • Rewrote AppIndex/FileIndex in Swift

Fixed

3
  • License settings displaying masked email
  • Padding issues throughout app
  • Incorrect icon sizes

v0.4.6

May 28, 2026

New

2
  • Choose the launcher's starting screen, main or active
  • Safe area around screen edges to prevent off-screen dragging

Improved

3
  • Preview uses toggle option by default
  • Built-in plugins no longer show plugin header
  • Launcher dragging improved (excluding text area)

Fixed

3
  • Preview window losing focus
  • Preview opening on different screen than panel
  • File Search now allows direct paths like ~/Downloads/

v0.4.5

May 27, 2026

New

1
  • New custom liquid glass variant

Fixed

1
  • Window position saved relatively, persists across screen size changes

v0.4.4

May 25, 2026

New

1
  • File Search plugin activation via /f shortcut

Improved

4
  • Adapted liquid glass for macOS 26
  • Removed ActivePill in favor of sleeker bar
  • Native plugins no longer show plugin header
  • Improved dragging with haptic feedback

Fixed

4
  • LookAhead shows date for non-same-day events
  • Settings typos
  • Item size alignment
  • Padding consistency

v0.4.3

May 24, 2026

New

4
  • File Search plugin with indexing capabilities
  • Expression Evaluation (using Soulver Core)
  • Search aliases for faster app launching
  • Window drag and snap functionality

Improved

4
  • Migrated to custom keyboard shortcut implementation
  • Improved License page UI
  • Made launcher window smaller
  • Separated plugin/feature settings

Fixed

2
  • Border radius jumping on first character
  • Separated background appearance in Settings