Phase 1 of the improvement plan (PR 3 of the sequence). The docs claimed
"fully offline"/"never talks to the network," but text-intel makes HTTP
requests to a configurable Ollama host that could be remote, with no timeout,
no cancellation, and no size limit; the Windows hook logged raw keystrokes
into capture metadata that could then be sent to that host.
Privacy — raw keystroke capture:
- New capture.captureTypedText setting, default false. With it off, printable
characters are never buffered in JS and the Windows keyboard hook never even
emits them across the process boundary (the flag is threaded into the C#).
Shortcut/navigation detection (Ctrl+T, Enter, …) is unaffected.
AI network hardening (app/text-intel.js):
- Every Ollama call goes through fetchJson with an AbortController deadline
(ai.timeoutMs, default 60s): a dead endpoint fails fast instead of leaving
UI actions pending forever.
- Cancellation: in-flight requests are tracked and cancelInflight(guideId)
aborts them; new ai:cancel IPC + api.ai.cancel are called when the editor
closes, and shutdown cancels everything.
- Bounded concurrency (2) for AI network work.
- Screenshots are only attached when allowed (ai.attachScreenshots), the model
is vision-capable, and the image is within ai.maxImageBytes — no more
unbounded base64-expanded 4K bodies.
Local-first host policy (core/text-intel.js):
- New isLoopbackHost + validateOllamaHost. By default only a loopback Ollama
endpoint is contacted; a remote host is refused with a clear message unless
ai.allowRemoteHost is explicitly enabled. Blocked hosts are never contacted.
Honest documentation:
- README, package.json, and the welcome screen drop "fully offline"/"never
talks to the network"/"Electron is the only dependency" for an accurate
local-first contract that discloses the optional AI path and the bundled
Tesseract OCR dependency.
- New docs/PRIVACY.md details exactly what is collected locally and the one
outbound (opt-in, loopback-by-default) AI feature.
Tests: loopback/remote host matrix, remote-blocked-without-opt-in (and never
contacted), remote-allowed-with-opt-in, request timeout, explicit cancel vs
timeout, typed-text off-by-default vs opted-in, shortcut detection still works,
and a source guard that the C# CHAR emission stays behind the opt-in. 224 unit
tests pass; startup smoke and workflow E2E pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Phase 1 of the improvement plan (PR 2 of the sequence). A remote page could
previously inherit the privileged preload bridge: the main window had no
navigation guard or popup handler, IPC handlers accepted any sender, every
Electron permission was granted to everyone, and shell:openPath accepted an
arbitrary renderer-supplied target.
- New app/security.js (plain-Node testable) centralizes the policy:
app-page identity, navigation/popup denial, deny-by-default permissions,
external-URL validation, IPC sender guard, payload budgets, field
validators, and a produced-files registry.
- Every window (main, region overlay, capture worker) is sandboxed, denies
all navigation away from its own page, denies every popup, and refuses
webview attachment.
- Every IPC channel now rejects events that are not from the main window's
top frame on index.html, rejects non-plain/oversized argument bags, and
channels with risky inputs validate ids, enums, names, and sizes
(path-traversal and prototype-pollution guards included).
- Permissions are deny-by-default; the only grant in the app is display
capture (+media) for the dedicated capture-worker page. The display-media
handler also verifies the requesting frame.
- shell:openPath/showItemInFolder are gone. Replacements are intent-specific:
openProduced (only files the main process produced this session),
revealLinkedArchive (path read from the store, not the renderer), and
openExternal (parsed, scheme-checked http(s)/mailto only).
- archive:peek removed: unused, and it let the renderer read arbitrary
archives by path.
- export:run only accepts output directories that came from a dialog pick or
remembered settings; anything else re-prompts.
- Renderer: description links never navigate; http(s)/mailto open externally
via the validated handler.
- 12 new security regression tests: hostile navigation targets, permission
matrix, sender spoofing (wrong window/subframe/navigated/disposed frames),
oversized payloads, traversal/pollution attempts, produced-file registry,
and source-level guards (no blanket grants, no generic shell channels,
sandbox on every window).
Verified: 215 unit tests pass; startup smoke, unit-workflows, sample
artifacts, and build-release E2E pass; click self-test still reaches
source: stream with markers 3/3 and burst 8/8 under the deny-by-default
policy (arm/debounce remain the known pre-existing failures, untouched
here); UI screenshot confirms the sandboxed renderer boots.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
- Store captureMetadata (OCR text, window/app/element info) with each
step at capture time so AI always has the original rich context.
- Add buildCaptureContext() to TextIntelService; capture.js uses it
instead of buildCaptureTitle() so both title and metadata come from
one pass.
- generateStepPatch() prefers stored captureMetadata over re-running
OCR, giving the AI the best possible context when the user clicks
an AI button later.
- Add autoDoc setting: when enabled every capture (shoot, region, and
session hotkey/click) is automatically documented by AI. Manual
captures await AI before returning; session captures fire-and-forget
and push a step:updated event so the renderer reloads seamlessly.
- Add ai:rewriteText IPC and rewriteText() method for plain-text
polishing via a separate callOllamaText() that skips JSON mode.
- Add "AI Rewrite" section in the editor right panel: textarea + AI
button that rewrites whatever the user types in place.
- Improve buildAiPrompt() rules: action-focused title instructions,
explicit anti-junk rules (no "Capture the screen / OCR" blocks),
and a context-quality gate that suppresses blocks when context is
thin.
- Add autoDoc checkbox to AI settings dialog.
- Renderer handles step:updated to reload the selected step after
background auto-doc finishes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <[email protected]>
createGuide() opened the new guide with plain openGuide(), so no capture
session was armed — the "Start recording" bar never bound to the new guide,
and clicking it did nothing (or resumed a stale prior session). Every other
open path (guide cards, search results, New Capture) arms a paused session;
this aligns createGuide() with them via openGuideAndArmCapture().
Lets users record author/co-authors/organization for a guide via a new
"Guide information…" dialog; this metadata renders below the title on
the PDF cover (title now sits above the accent rule). PDF export also
paginates so each step fits its own page where possible, keeps a
step's title/image/lead-in together, and forces the next step onto a
fresh page after an oversized step overflows. Exports now run in a
forked helper process so large guides no longer freeze the UI.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <[email protected]>
- The canvas Undo/Redo buttons now also undo/redo step deletion
(single or multi-select), restoring the step's data, images, and
position in the order. Backed by a new step:restore IPC call and
GuideStore.restoreStep().
- Remove "Finish capture session" from the capture menu. The
top-right recording bar in the guide editor is now the only place
to start/stop recording, with its toggle relabeled
"Start recording" / "Stop recording".
- New Capture sessions now start paused; the window only tucks away once
the user clicks "Start recording" in the capture bar instead of hiding
~1.2s after starting.
- The capture status bar is shown only in the editor view, not over the
library.
- Fix openModal/confirmDialog resolving as cancelled when an action button
is clicked, which made the step "Delete" button (and other modal actions)
silently no-op.
- Click-triggered captures now use the click-time cursor position for the
marker and arm the capture cache as soon as recording starts, so the
first click is captured instantly and accurately placed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Users couldn't click into the app mid-session: every automatic capture
hid the window for the shot, so it vanished under the cursor. Under
WSLg minimize() is a no-op and isFocused() sticks true, so neither can
be used for control.
- Sessions now hide the window once at start and show a red tray icon
with Capture now / Pause-Resume / Open StepForge (auto-pauses) /
Finish; finishing or quitting restores/cleans up properly
- Opening the app from the tray pauses capture; resuming tucks the
window away again
- Automatic captures skip while the cursor is over a visible StepForge
window (cursor-based, not focus-based, due to WSLg sticky focus)
- Per-shot latency reduced: with the window already hidden the 350 ms
hide-repaint wait is skipped entirely
- OS notification announces the session; self-tests updated and green
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
The session previously only listened for the global hotkey, which is
unreliable under WSLg/Wayland — users got one screenshot and nothing
more. Sessions now layer three triggers:
- click-capture via OS adapters (xinput test-xi2 on X11, PowerShell
GetAsyncKeyState polling on Windows), debounced, ignoring clicks on
StepForge itself
- interval auto-capture (3/5/10 s) as the always-works fallback,
enabled by default when click detection is unavailable
- the existing global hotkey, plus a manual Shoot button
The REC bar now shows live count + active trigger with Shoot / Auto /
Pause / Finish. New captures and added steps are selected in the
editor (explicit reload(stepId) wins over a surviving selection).
Capture self-test hook (STEPFORGE_CAPTURE_SELFTEST) verifies 3x
hotkey-path captures and interval capture end-to-end.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Bug fixes from code review:
- Wrap renderer modules (canvas/dialogs/editor/app) in IIFEs: duplicate
top-level 'const api' across plain scripts threw a SyntaxError that
prevented app.js from ever running (blank window), and dialogs.js/
editor.js silently overrode each other's labeledRow/makeSelect
- Focused-view toggle now writes step.focusedView.enabled instead of a
nonexistent flat field that the schema dropped on save
- Annotation property edits no longer rebuild the panel on every
keystroke (focus was stolen mid-typing); debounced save instead
- flushStep/undo/redo keep this.steps in sync with stepMap so the step
list stops going stale after the first save
- Escape now deselects the annotation; Delete remains the delete key
Welcome screen (per spec): app opens to a title at top and three
buttons at the bottom — New Capture (creates a guide, opens the editor,
starts a capture session), Existing Workspace (library), Settings.
Brand click returns to the welcome screen.
Adds an env-gated dev screenshot hook (STEPFORGE_SCREENSHOT[_JS]) used
to visually verify welcome/library/editor views under WSLg.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
TylerandClaude Fable 5