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Updates Aug 15, 2026

Skales 12.8.0 - "Sightline"

The sidebar is one list again, the surfaces that had grown into a menu of their own are back where the work happens, and what Skales knows about you can be kept off the network with one switch.

We've just released Skales v12.8.0, bringing a number of thoughtful updates to your desktop AI experience. This version focuses on making Skales more intuitive and giving you more control over your data.

A Streamlined Sidebar

The sidebar has been simplified, consolidating your active work into a single, organised list. When you open a conversation, the sidebar adapts to show navigation specific to that chat, like new chats, agents, and project-related options. Shortcuts now appear as overlays, ensuring they don't obscure other elements.

Centralised Cockpit

The Cockpit is now your go-to place for everything running. With Goals, Tasks, and Schedule as distinct tabs, you can easily manage your ongoing work. Each goal now has a detailed screen showing its objectives, progress, and outcomes.

Studio Flow

Clicking "Studio" now takes you directly into the Flow workspace, a more integrated environment for building. The classic Studio is still accessible as "Studio Classic" for those who prefer it. You can also now start a prototype directly in Lio AI from here.

Enhanced Privacy

We've introduced a "Privacy Mode" that keeps all of Skales's knowledge about you entirely on your machine. When enabled, cloud models will not receive any personal data, ensuring your information stays local.

Smarter Code Experience

The Code section now features a "Codework mode" that opens the file and preview panels from the start, allowing you to see your chat, files, and diffs side-by-side immediately. Skales can also now draft commit messages for you and keep working notes within your projects.

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More from the blog

Updates Sep 6, 2026 Skales v12.9.26 - Grip Grip is the release where Skales stops when you say stop, and tells you what it costs before it spends. Under every reply sits the price of the session, read from the provider or from the price table, with the sub-agents' bill included; a ceiling you set in Goals stops a run before the next paid step and asks you three things - continue, take a cheaper model, or stop - in the chat, in the Code window, in Iris and on the phone. A typed "stop" is honoured before the first request leaves the machine, and a stopped run says so in its own bubble instead of pretending it finished. Credentials are locked away from the file, shell and search tools; a bulk action or a publish asks first, in every mode, and a yes never covers more than the card names. Updates Sep 4, 2026 Skales v12.9.25 - Backbone Backbone is the release where Skales got one engine. A chat you type, a task you scheduled, a job on a timer, a plugin, a webhook, a Discord message, a Telegram or WhatsApp turn and the desktop Buddy used to run on different loops with different rules; now they all run on the same one, with the same guards, the same budget and the same record of what happened. Close Skales in the middle of a run, update it, let it crash: the run comes back as an unfinished run, says how far it got, and one Continue picks it up at that step. Ask for something big and Skales can hand parts of it to sub-agents, each in its own checkout of your repository, and collect the results. Under every reply sits a context meter that names what filled the window: the system prompt, the tool definitions, your skills, your memory and the conversation itself. Updates Sep 2, 2026 Skales v12.9.21 - Cockpit 2.0 Cockpit 2.0 is named for the screen it replaces. What used to be two stacked tab bars, a second title and a row of icon chips is now one board: everything that stands, in four columns, with goals, your own tasks, Autopilot tasks and schedules as cards you can filter, drag and act on. One head, one action. The phone got the same board in 2.9.21, and a computer on an older version still fills it from what it can tell rather than showing an empty screen.

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