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Release notes

Local Hoist v0.4.4

September 6, 2026

Introducing tool result tightening: let the assistant keep the useful parts of long tool results in context while preserving the original for review. This release also adds tracked shell file changes, more mobile controls, and selective transcription, with fixes for draft recovery and spending limits.

New

  • Introducing tool result tightening, an experimental way to manage context as the assistant works. After reading a long file, search result, or shell output, the assistant can select exact excerpts to keep in future requests instead of carrying the whole result forward. It can add a short note or leave the result untouched. The original stays available to view and restore. Off by default; enable it in Preferences under Tool Result Tightening. Read how it works, when it helps, and its limits.
  • Added GPT-6 Astra to the model picker.
  • Shell commands can now declare the files they will change. Local Hoist backs up those files and includes completed changes in diffs, commits, and rollback. Commit and rollback wait while file tracking is pending or unverified.
  • Mobile Remote gains Compact and Full logs, live sub-agent activity and controls, and workspace folder management using desktop recent folders. You can also preview and confirm a new Git worktree. These features require updated desktop and iOS apps.
  • Audio and video inspection can now transcribe selected time ranges or skip transcription for frame-only follow-ups. Each file has its own settings, and cached transcripts can supply selected sections without another transcription request.

Improved

  • Compact conversations group completed sub-agents under the tool call that launched them, keep active continuations visible, and stop removed tool results from reappearing after context pruning.
  • MCP settings now show diagnostic output and let you adjust startup and tool timeouts. Timed-out calls warn that remote work may still be running and are not automatically retried.

Reliability

  • App updates and restarts wait for recordings and transcription to finish saving, and for attachment uploads to complete. Unsent image attachments restore with their draft after navigation or restart.
  • Daily and monthly spending limits no longer count Codex OAuth subscription-equivalent cost estimates. Actual Local Hoist credit charges and BYOK provider costs still count.
  • Claude progress updates keep their display format after reloading a conversation. The mobile model picker no longer offers to turn thinking off for models that require it.
  • Gemini Omni Flash video requests now reject unsupported input combinations before uploading media. Edit cost estimates use the input video's duration instead of assuming a default clip length.

Security

  • Remote images embedded in Markdown now ask before loading and show the destination. Conversation search highlighting also treats titles and search text as text rather than HTML.
  • Strengthened mobile pairing checks, workspace path validation, and credential filtering for shells, hooks, and MCP servers.