Changelog
What’s new in Ember.
- 0.3.17DesktopSeptember 8, 2026
Your daily chat now keeps its conversations apart, and you can talk with Ember about any card straight from the card.
Talk about a card
Every card in your daily stack has a third door beside the mic and the pencil: a chat bubble. Tap it and the conversation opens with that card in front of Ember — the card sits in the chat where you can both see it, and whatever you say next is about it. Cards you've already answered, and cards that only ask to be read, can be talked about too.
Conversations, not one long scroll
Your day's chat is still one place, but it now knows when one conversation ends and another begins. Come back after an hour away, start talking about a different card, or press Start fresh, and a gentle wave with the time marks the break. Everything you said before stays right there to scroll back through — nothing is cleared — and Ember carries a memory of each earlier conversation into the next one, so "what did we land on earlier?" gets a real answer.
- Start fresh replaces Clear. Your earlier messages stay on screen; the next thing you write simply opens a new conversation.
- Suggestions come back whenever a new conversation is about to begin.
Fixed
- A reply never gets cut off at the day's turn. If Ember is mid-sentence when your journal's day rolls over, the chat waits until the reply lands — and until you close it — before moving to the new day. Your next message always goes to the right day.
- The message box keeps anything you typed while a send was still on its way.
Update your other device too: this release pairs with Ember for iPhone 0.3.12, and the two are happiest on the same version.
- 0.3.16DesktopAugust 21, 2026
Ember now writes you a letter each week — a reflection on your week, kept forever in your timeline.
A letter from Ember
At the end of each week you've written in, Ember writes you a letter — a short reflection on the week, in its own voice, grounded in your own words.
- It lives in your timeline. The letter is stamped at the end of the week it's about, between your days, and stays there for good — part of your journal's history, not a notification that disappears.
- It quotes you, faithfully. Anything in quotation marks is something you actually wrote, attributed to the day you wrote it. The themes it lists are counted from your own words, not guessed.
- It arrives glowing. An unread letter glows softly in the timeline — the newest one breathes — and settles once you've read it. Reading a letter on one device quiets it on the others.
- It ends with a question from your week, to carry into the next one.
Weeks with only a little writing skip their letter — a letter needs a week to reflect on.
Also in this release
- A "Weekly letter" model picker in Settings ▸ Debug, alongside the daily cards one.
- Smoother timeline scrolling when new content arrives while you're reading older entries.
- 0.3.15DesktopAugust 12, 2026
Your journal day now ends when you do — writing past midnight stays with the evening, and you choose when a new day begins.
Highlights
- Late nights stay one night. Writing at half past midnight no longer flips the page under you — the conversation continues, your cards stay put, and the entry files with the evening it belongs to. By default a new day begins at 4 AM.
- Choose your own boundary. Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ "New day starts at" offers anywhere from Midnight to 6 AM. Your choice travels with your journal, so your Mac and iPhone always agree on which day a late entry belongs to.
- History is untouched. Everything you have already written keeps exactly the date it has today.
Fixed
- The daily chat now reliably turns over to the new day while the app stays open, instead of waiting for a restart.
- Ember always knows today's date in your timezone — late evenings no longer look like tomorrow to the assistant.
- During a late-night session, the calendar opens to the month you are actually living in.
Pairs with Ember for iPhone 0.3.10 — update both so your devices agree on when the day turns.
- 0.3.14DesktopAugust 8, 2026
Syncing that keeps up with you: faster catch-up when you come back, lighter on your network while you're away.
Highlights
- Sync catches up the moment you return. Come back to your Mac after a while away and your latest entries from the phone are already arriving — Ember notices your return and fetches right away instead of waiting for the next scheduled check.
- Lighter when you're not looking. While Ember sits in the background it now checks in far less often, easing off your network and your battery without missing anything.
- Steadier syncing under the hood. Each part of a sync round now completes independently, so a hiccup in one step no longer holds up the rest — changes keep flowing in even if something upstream is briefly slow.
Pairs with Ember for iPhone 0.3.8 — update both for the smoothest experience.
- 0.3.13DesktopAugust 7, 2026
Dismiss cards you're done with, daily cards with a stronger editorial sense, and a new Debug panel in Settings.
Highlights
- Dismiss a card. A quiet ✕ on any open card lets you set it down for good — it stays in the deck, softly marked "Dismissed", and stops asking. The day's tally stays honest: "All done" when you dismissed some, "All answered" when you answered them all.
- Daily cards know what's worth saying. The deck now works your whole journal with a clearer sense of purpose: a line of yours from months ago that speaks to today, a pattern named gently, an open thread you never came back to, growth you can verify, a win worth celebrating — and when a day was heavy, a card that simply sits with it.
- Settings ▸ Debug. A new panel with a "Regenerate daily cards" button, plus choices for which model writes your deck and how much thinking it puts in. Your picks sync across devices.
- 0.3.12DesktopAugust 6, 2026
The Daily Card Stack arrives on desktop — a daily deck of questions, echoes of your own words, and patterns Ember noticed.
New
- The Daily Card Stack. Once a day, Ember lays a small deck at the top of your journal: a question worth sitting with, a line of your own from months ago, a pattern it noticed, sometimes a mantra. Click through them, answer the ones that ask — by typing or speaking — and every answer becomes its own journal entry.
- Made for the desktop. Page through the open deck with your arrow keys or a trackpad swipe, tap a number to pick an option, press Enter to answer. ⌘E turns a card answer into a full journal entry mid-thought, ready to keep writing.
- Your answers, everywhere. Answer a card on your phone and watch it appear on your desktop — even with the deck open. The deck is shared: one deck a day, across all your devices.
Improved
- A calmer home page. Each day now shows its summary and a quiet line of facts — cards answered, words written, when you last wrote. While a summary is being written, a soft shimmer holds its place.
- Summaries that keep up. Write or answer something, come back to the home page, and your day's summary refreshes to include it — no more waiting for the day to catch up with you.
- Ember knows whose words are whose. When your daily summary reflects on a card answer, Ember reads its own question as a question — never as something you wrote.
The card stack is new on both platforms — update Ember on your other devices too so your decks and answers travel together.
- 0.3.11DesktopAugust 4, 2026
Empty chats now greet you with your day at a glance and tap-to-start conversation openers.
New
- Your day, at a glance. Open a chat before you've said anything and Ember sets the scene: a short title for your day, your daily summary, and how much you've written so far.
- Tap-to-start openers. Three suggested openers, drawn from what you actually wrote today. Tap one and the conversation starts right away — and they tuck themselves away the moment you start typing instead.
Improved
- Clearer when AI can't respond. If a reply can't come through, Ember now says so right away instead of going quiet.
- Day titles are new — update Ember on your other devices too so they show up everywhere.
- 0.3.10DesktopAugust 3, 2026
Connected AI tools can now find related journal passages by meaning, even when the words do not match.
Improved
- Find what you meant. When you enable Settings → MCP, compatible AI apps can now search your journal and library by meaning instead of relying only on exact words.
- Focus the search. Connected tools can narrow results by date, category, or keyword while keeping the connection private to your Mac and read-only.
- 0.3.9DesktopAugust 3, 2026
Connect Ember to AI tools on your Mac, with calmer voice recording and more consistent themes.
New
- Your journal, available when you choose. Settings → MCP can open a private connection for compatible AI apps on this Mac. It starts off, shows when it is active, and can be switched off immediately.
- Built-in guardrails. Connected tools can search and read your journal, add new entries, and organize your library, but they cannot edit or delete existing journal entries.
Improved
- Voice recording stays out of the way. Empty entries now invite you to start typing or speak, and the compact recording window appears only when Ember is in the background. It also adapts its display for personal voice notes and meetings.
- A cleaner recording experience. Recorder controls, borders, badges, and dividers now follow your chosen theme more consistently.
- Transcript-first voice notes. Your spoken words still become part of the journal, without adding an audio player to the entry.
- 0.3.8DesktopJuly 29, 2026
Set up Ember with an invite code — one code turns on sync and includes AI, with no key to paste.
New
- One code sets you up. Enter your invite code when you first open Ember and everything comes with it: sync across your devices, and AI already switched on. Nothing to find, paste, or sign up for elsewhere.
- Know where you stand. Settings → AI now shows a quiet meter for how much of this month's included AI you've used. It refreshes monthly.
Improved
- Clearer sync status. If your sync storage fills up, Settings → Sync now says so plainly: syncing pauses, your journal stays complete on this device, and nothing is lost. New changes sync again as soon as there's room.
- Polish throughout setup and Settings — including a friendly note when this month's included AI runs out, so your writing is never interrupted.
Note
- Ember on your iPhone has a matching update. Updating both keeps your devices in step.
- 0.3.7DesktopJuly 28, 2026
See every device connected to your journal — by name, with when it last synced — right in Settings.
New
- Your devices, by name. Settings → Sync now lists every Mac and iPhone connected to your journal — shown by name, like "MacBook Pro" or "iPhone 15 Pro" — each with when it last synced. New devices appear the moment they're paired.
- Your inbox stays in step. Open a letter on your phone and it's marked read on your Mac too — no more re-dismissing the same card twice.
Improved
- A gentle shimmer now shows while your daily summary is being written, so you know it's on the way.
- The Settings sidebar stays put while the page scrolls.
Note
- This update pairs with the newest iPhone app. If your phone pauses syncing, updating Ember on it picks things right back up.
- 0.3.6DesktopJuly 27, 2026
Cleaner release notes and a tidier update prompt.
Fixed
- Readable what's-new. Release notes no longer break mid-sentence, and the update prompt now lives in the corner with everything else — replacing the what's-new note when an update is ready to install.
- 0.3.5DesktopJuly 27, 2026
Entering your phone's pairing code is smoother.
Improved
- Snappier pairing. The code entry screen now appears the instant your phone connects, and pairing completes as soon as you finish typing the six digits — no extra click.
- 0.3.4DesktopJuly 27, 2026
Pairing your phone is more secure, and turning on sync is now a single tap.
Highlights
- Confirm-code pairing. When you pair your phone, it shows a short code you confirm on your desktop — so only your own devices can ever connect.
- One-tap sync. Turning on sync is now a single button, with no codes to paste in.
- More reliable connections. Sync and pairing now connect dependably, even on networks that were flaky before.
- 0.3.3DesktopJuly 27, 2026
A redesigned Settings — calmer, clearer, and with a proper About page.
Highlights
- Settings, redesigned. A new sidebar layout with roomier cards, clearer controls, and the same warm feel in light and dark.
- About Ember. See your version at a glance, check for updates on demand, read what's new, and send feedback — all in one place.
- Clearer sync setup. A device that isn't syncing yet now explains what to do, and the advanced options stay out of the way until you want them.
- 0.3.2DesktopJuly 27, 2026
Sync now tells you what it needs in plain language.
Improved
- Clearer sync messages. When sync needs attention — a connection blip, a pairing code that was already used, a device that needs an app update — Ember now says so plainly instead of showing a generic error.
- 0.3.1DesktopJuly 27, 2026
A small reliability release: Ember now always opens straight into your journal.
Fixed
- Dependable startup. In some setups, Ember could open into a blank workspace instead of your journal. It now always finds your journal directly.
- 0.3.0DesktopJuly 27, 2026
Ember now updates itself, shows what's new, and protects your journal before every migration.
Highlights
- Automatic updates with a restart pill. Ember quietly checks for new versions on launch and every few hours, downloads and installs them in the background, and surfaces a gentle "Restart to update" pill when a new build is ready. No more manual DMG downloads.
- What's-new inbox cards. Each release drops a card into your inbox summarizing what changed, so you actually notice the improvements you're getting.
- Automatic pre-migration backups. Before any database migration runs, Ember takes a timestamped backup of your journal. If a migration ever goes sideways, your data is already safe on disk.
- AI-log pruning. Diagnostic AI call logs are now pruned automatically on a 14-day retention window, keeping the database lean without you thinking about it.
Notes
Updates are roll-forward only — Ember never downgrades an install. Every versioned artifact stays retained on the release CDN, so a bad build is always fixed by shipping a newer one.