Changelog

Every meaningful change to Pathrule, dated, in plain language. We share what changed and why it matters, without publishing private implementation details.

June 2026

FixJun 14

Open a set-up folder in VS Code and connect with one click

If you set up a folder with the Pathrule CLI or the desktop app and then open it in the VS Code extension, the extension now recognizes that workspace and connects with a single click, using the account you are already signed in with on this machine. There is no second setup to run. If you are signed out, the same place offers a plain sign in rather than a setup prompt, and the create step is guarded so you cannot accidentally make a second workspace for a folder that already has one.

FixJun 14

The desktop app's built-in tools start reliably on a clean install

The Pathrule server that the desktop app launches for your AI clients, including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf and GitHub Copilot, now starts cleanly on a fresh install, so its tools are ready the first time you connect. Updating to this build is all you need.

ShipJun 13

Our efficiency benchmark is open and reproducible

The benchmark behind Pathrule's efficiency claims is now public at github.com/pathrule/benchmarks, so you can read it and run it yourself. It checks out a real pinned open-source repository (Fastify), seeds it with team-style knowledge, and asks each assistant the same prompts twice: once with the whole knowledge base dumped into one instruction file, once with Pathrule's path-scoped delivery. Scoring is mechanical, every run is recorded, and the report publishes the cells where Pathrule costs more. The primary metric is total footprint, the tokens the model processes per turn: on the hard tier Claude Opus 4.8 carried about 52% less and OpenAI Codex GPT-5.5 about 41% less, with facts preserved (the Codex run is mixed and reported as such). These cells measure path-scoped delivery; semantic embedding ranking is an additive layer measured separately. See How we measure.

PerfJun 13

Your AI gets only the knowledge each prompt needs

Pathrule now reads each prompt and delivers just the memories, rules and skills that are relevant to it, as full ready-to-use content rather than a list of titles to go and fetch. The assistant acts on what it is handed instead of searching your repo, so answers stay grounded in your team's knowledge and the context it has to carry stays small. Because only the relevant slice ships each turn and unchanged context is never re-sent, the savings grow as your knowledge base grows. Path scope drives this with no setup and no key; for relevance beyond the file you are in, semantic ranking adds it, managed for you in Pathrule Cloud or with your own embedding key in the open-source edition. The same delivery reaches Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, the desktop app and the VS Code extension. See How retrieval works.

FixJun 9

Stay signed in on Desktop, VS Code and the CLI at the same time

Signing in on one local surface no longer signs you out of the others. Pathrule Desktop, the VS Code extension and the CLI now each keep their own session, so you can stay logged in everywhere at once and a sign-in or a routine session refresh on one surface never knocks the others offline. Updating to this build keeps you signed in where you already were. You can sign out of just the surface you are on, or sign out everywhere in a single step.

ShipJun 9

Add a Pattern to your workspace with one token

Patterns now import straight into your workspace. Paste ::pathrule:package:<slug> into your AI assistant and Pathrule writes the whole bundle, memories, rules and skills, onto the paths it belongs to. Before anything lands, a dry-run preview shows the pieces and the suggested paths, lines them up against your actual tree, and asks you to confirm when the pattern's stack does not match the project. Imported content becomes yours and evolves locally; re-importing the same pattern is a no-op, and a single call removes the whole bundle again. It works the same across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf and GitHub Copilot, on both the local runtimes and the hosted Remote MCP. See Patterns and the import guide.

ShipJun 9

Pathrule Patterns: a public catalog of ready-to-use knowledge

Patterns are curated packages of memories, rules and skills, each pre-scoped to the path it belongs to, so your AI assistant applies it only where it is relevant. The public catalog at pathrule.io/patterns spans frameworks, frontend, backend, billing, infra and workflow, every package first-party and Apache-2.0. Each pattern page shows the full bundle grouped by path, a derived contents summary, and a one-click manual copy that works today, plus a clean markdown view so AI assistants can read the bundle directly. Adding a new pattern is one entry in the open @pathrule/patterns package. See Patterns documentation.

ShipJun 7

Pathrule now supports GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot joins Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Windsurf as a first-class target. One setup reaches Copilot across VS Code agent mode, the Copilot CLI and the coding agent: Pathrule registers its MCP server, writes a path-scoped protocol into .github/copilot-instructions.md, ships skills Copilot can invoke, and registers a hook that delivers the matching slice of your team's memories and rules before the first tool call, so a strict rule can block a non-compliant change before it lands. The same memories, rules and skills you already use everywhere else drive Copilot too, with no separate knowledge base. See Pathrule for GitHub Copilot.

ShipJun 7

Pathrule ships as a VS Code extension

Pathrule is now a full client inside your editor, for VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf. Install it from the Visual Studio Marketplace or Open VSX. The open folder is the workspace and the active file is the path: a knowledge tree follows your editor, and memories, rules and skills open as ordinary markdown tabs that save back to Pathrule with conflict-safe handling instead of silent overwrites. It runs in two modes behind one UI, local with no account or signed in for the team layer, the same split as the CLI, and shares one identity with it. A single command connects Copilot agent mode, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Windsurf and injects the hooks, with a doctor to verify the setup. See the VS Code surface docs for the full tour.

ShipJun 6

Pathrule core is now open source

The path-scoped, just-in-time context engine and the full MCP tool surface that drives Claude Code, Cursor and Codex are now open source under Apache-2.0 at github.com/pathrule/core. It runs fully local with no account and no infrastructure: pathrule init --local then pathrule setup --local give a solo developer a complete offline agent loop, with memories, rules and skills stored on your own machine. Bring your own embedding key if you want semantic recall. The managed cloud edition, with team sync, live overlap awareness and AI curation, is unchanged and builds on the same core.

ShipJun 6

Self-hosted enterprise deployment

Pathrule can now run entirely on your own infrastructure, in your cloud, VPC or on-prem, so your data, your backups and your SSO never leave your environment. It ships as a signed container bundle with SBOMs, authenticates through your own SAML or OIDC provider (Entra ID, Okta and Google Workspace) with role-based access and audit logs, and lets you choose between Pathrule's hosted AI or your own model provider key. The full team experience, including realtime overlap awareness, runs inside your environment, and only licensing and billing stay with us.

ShipJun 4

Re-point a workspace to a new folder

If your project folder moved, or you accidentally created a second empty workspace for the same project, you can now re-select a workspace's local folder directly in Workspace Settings instead of starting over. The folder binding is per-user, so your teammates keep their own, and the workspace's memories, rules and skills stay exactly as they were. Available in the Pathrule Mac app.

ShipJun 4

Faster workspace creation

Creating a workspace no longer makes you wait on the whole setup before it responds. The new workspace opens right away and the rest, like importing an existing CLAUDE.md and starting the file watcher, finishes in the background. Large repositories no longer feel like the dialog is stuck.

ShipJun 3

Every new account starts with a Demo Workspace

New accounts now open to a read-only Demo Workspace, pinned at the top of the sidebar and prefilled with a realistic project: example memories, rules and skills, and a populated dashboard. It is there so you can see what Pathrule looks like in real use before you attach your own repo. The demo is read-only, so its contents cannot be edited or deleted, and you can remove the workspace whenever you want. Existing accounts get it too.

May 2026

ShipMay 21

Pathrule learns which memories actually help your AI

When an AI agent works through a problem and uses one of your memories, Pathrule now records that as a positive signal for similar future intents. Over a few sessions the memories that genuinely help get ranked higher when the next session has a similar intent, and the ones that miss fade out. Sarcasm and false starts do not count, and Pathrule never stores the prompt itself.

ShipMay 21

AI context now sees co-change hints and past work episodes

When the AI is working on a file, Pathrule tells it which other files in your workspace typically change with it, and surfaces a short summary of related past work for bug fix, refactor, debug, and discovery intents. The matching test, the i18n companion, and the previous attempt at the same surface no longer slip past the agent.

ShipMay 21

Proactive co-change nudge in focused context

On a focused or deeper context request, Pathrule adds a single proactive line when the file you are touching has a strong co-change partner that is missing from the session. The message is one short sentence, only appears when the signal is strong enough to be worth the tokens, and stays quiet on sparse workspaces.

ShipMay 21

Memories can serve multiple paths

A memory like "IPC keychain deadlock" might apply to the Electron services folder and to the shared IPC module at the same time. The memory editor now lets you list every workspace path the memory should surface for, and the AI session pulls it in at all of those locations.

ShipMay 21

Friction hotspots in the Suggestions tab

Pathrule now tracks which tools fail most often on which files in your workspace. The Suggestions tab gets a friction section listing the file plus tool plus failure code pairs that come up the most, so you can write a targeted memory that warns the AI before it tries the same thing again.

ShipMay 21

AI can flag stale memories back to the team

When an AI agent realises one of the existing memories has drifted from the current code, it can now flag the entry from inside the session. The flag lands in the Suggestions tab with the agent reason and a one-click handoff back to AI for repair, just like user-driven refresh tasks.

FixMay 21

Suggestions sweep produces refresh tasks again

A sweep configuration mismatch was preventing Pathrule from writing new suggestion records, which left the Suggestions tab quieter than it should have been. The sweep now runs cleanly, dead path references and related signals appear as expected, and the AI handoff flow is fully back online across every workspace.

ShipMay 20

Pathrule CLI runs on macOS, Windows and Linux

A single npm i -g @pathrule/cli now installs a complete local Pathrule runtime on every major developer OS, with no Pathrule Desktop required. The CLI owns the bundled MCP stdio server, propagates PATHRULE_HOME and corporate proxy settings into AI client configs, materializes the hook script (with a Windows .cmd shim for shell-less spawners), and ships a cross-platform smoke matrix so install and uninstall stay honest on every release.

ToolsMay 19

Pathrule listed on the Model Context Protocol registry

io.pathrule/pathrule-remote-mcp v0.1.0 is now active on the MCP registry. Any MCP-compatible client can connect over streamable-http at https://mcp.pathrule.io/mcp and reach the same path-scoped memories, rules and skills surface that drives Claude Code, Cursor and Codex on the desktop and CLI runtimes.

ShipMay 17

Pathrule is generally available

Signup is open at app.pathrule.io, with no invite gate. Web, Desktop and CLI ship from the same workspace tree, the MCP server is wired by default, and Solo stays free for individual developers. Teams interested in Team or Business can start on the public plans directly.

ShipMay 14

Team referrals with founder credits

Teams can now refer other teams through email-based referrals. Referred organizations receive three months of Team, while referrer organizations earn invoice credits only after the new team completes a real Pathrule setup in its own repo. The first three successful activations count toward Founder status and a bonus credit.

ShipMay 14

Web, Desktop and CLI move together

Pathrule now presents Web, Desktop and CLI as one product line. Teams can manage shared knowledge in the browser, run the full bundled desktop app, or use the CLI as a local runtime for terminal and Web workflows, with the same workspace tree and AI-client setup language across surfaces.

ShipMay 11

No more duplicate memories, rules and skills

Pathrule now prevents accidental duplicates when AI assistants try to add the same skill, memory or rule twice. If a workspace had duplicate skills with the same name, only the most recent copy is kept, so your AI client's skills folder no longer shows several variants of the same one. New writes are checked before they land: an exact match blocks the write and points to the existing record, while a near-match surfaces as a soft suggestion so the assistant can extend an existing note instead of creating a parallel one.

FixMay 11

Workspaces match folders with any letter casing

Pathrule now resolves your project folder to the same workspace even when the path on disk uses different letter casing than the one you originally connected, so your AI client always gets the right context on macOS and Windows. Symlinked and aliased folders now resolve to the same workspace automatically too.

FixMay 11

Skill editor stays put during background refresh

Editing a skill no longer loses its connection to the active record when the workspace tree refreshes in the background, so your changes and cursor position stay intact while you write.

ShipMay 9

Setup diagnostics for platform admins

Pathrule now gives platform admins a safer way to see where local AI-client setup stops, with per-user health signals and copyable setup logs that help support teams without asking for source files.

FixMay 5

Fresh installs connect Codex correctly

New desktop installs now write the local AI-client connection for Codex and other supported tools during setup, so a new device can use Pathrule immediately after onboarding.

FixMay 5

Plan changes appear without restart

Plan & Billing now refreshes the latest subscription state whenever the tab opens, so upgrades or grants made outside the current app session show up without asking the user to relaunch.

ShipMay 5

Smoother plan grants

Admin workflows can now resolve an existing user to the right organization from an email address, making it easier to apply a plan grant without manual lookup.

ShipMay 5

Four AI clients, one Pathrule setup

Pathrule now treats Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Windsurf as first-class clients, so the app reflects the tools your team actually uses instead of assuming one default assistant.

FixMay 5

Cleaner setup status

The desktop status chip now recognizes an active AI-client setup more reliably, reducing false "not installed" states after teams connect a supported coding assistant.

ShipMay 5

More polished desktop updates

The app menu and update prompts use clearer release copy, helping installed teams understand when a new Pathrule build is ready.

PerfMay 4

Smarter memory discovery

Broad questions now find related team memories before the AI falls back to raw file search. Short Turkish and English prompts are handled better, even when the useful note lives deeper in the project.

FixMay 4

Parent folders see child knowledge

Asking from a repo root or parent package is less likely to miss a memory attached to a more specific folder. Pathrule now points the assistant toward the right lower-level notes instead of going silent.

PerfMay 4

Managed background memory indexing

Existing and new memories can be prepared for better recall in the background through Pathrule cloud with no extra setup inside customer desktop builds.

ShipMay 4

Safer semantic hints for AI tools

When Pathrule has a likely but not yet confirmed memory match, AI tools now see compact candidate hints and clear read-before-use guidance rather than treating a title as the answer.

ShipMay 4

Release confidence checks

Broader pre-release checks now cover context quality, AI tool handoffs, direct skill calls, semantic fallback behavior and answer scoring before updates reach teams.

PerfMay 4

Smarter context routing

Pathrule recognizes context-quality and release-readiness requests more accurately, returning deeper project context only when the work calls for it.

FixMay 4

More reliable workspace sync

Approved project folders now survive relaunch, so existing Pathrule-managed workspaces keep their local instruction files current.

SecurityMay 3

Private intelligence layer

Pathrule's highest-value context selection and prioritization logic now runs behind a managed boundary. Client builds keep the same behavior while exposing less about how decisions are made.

ShipMay 3

Controlled project history

Teams can ask Pathrule for relevant prior work on demand with a history hint. Ordinary prompts stay clean, and history is labeled as context rather than a rule.

InfraMay 3

Retention and billing cleanup

Added lifecycle controls for derived history and unpaid organizations, including owner warnings, expiration windows, and cleanup paths that keep account state predictable.

ShipMay 2

Skill packages

Skills can now carry supporting files, not just a single instruction body. Teams can review package snapshots, keep external packages read-only, and edit manual packages in place.

PerfMay 2

Cleaner context retrieval

Reduced irrelevant root-level context and trimmed routing payloads. The AI now gets a smaller, more explainable context bundle for the same task.

UXMay 1

Managed product announcements

Returning desktop users can receive localized release notes and product notices inside the app, with one-time visibility rules so announcements do not become noise.

SecurityMay 1

Mandatory update gate

Unsupported desktop clients can now be blocked before the normal app loads. This gives us a safer way to retire old builds when a security or compatibility issue requires it.

April 2026

ShipApr 30

Explicit skill invocation

Engineers can now call a workspace skill directly from a prompt. Pathrule resolves the exact team skill and injects it only for that turn.

PerfApr 30

Quieter prompt context

Pathrule now separates strict reminders from advisory context, reduces repeated injections, and keeps root-level summaries out of ordinary tasks.

UXApr 29

Comments, mentions and line references

Memories, rules and skills now have their own discussion surface. Teams can mention teammates, resolve threads, and point comments at specific lines.

ToolsApr 29

Desktop notification panel

Mention notifications now live in a lightweight desktop panel. Click a notification to jump back into the relevant workspace item.

InfraApr 27

Billing and workspace lifecycle

Subscription state, workspace archive flows, delete safety, and owner-only billing controls now follow one account lifecycle model.

UXApr 27

Help center and workspace archive

Added safer archive surfaces, clearer restore flows, and help content for teams setting up shared AI context across a repository.

ToolsApr 26

More consistent AI client behavior

Pathrule now keeps supported AI clients closer in behavior, so the same workspace knowledge reaches the assistant regardless of where the engineer starts.

ShipApr 20

Just-in-time file context

When a prompt clearly references a file, Pathrule can deliver the matching team memory locally before the assistant starts exploring.

PerfApr 20

Slimmer context responses

Warm context reads are smaller and less repetitive. The assistant receives the strongest matching item without re-rendering the same surrounding payload.

FixApr 18

Stale path scope on rapid switches

Rapidly switching files could occasionally carry the previous path's reminder into the next task. Pathrule now ties each delivery to the active session.

ShipApr 12

Unified context request

One context request now chooses a lightweight, focused or deep answer based on the task, replacing several older ways of asking for workspace knowledge.

UXApr 8

Coverage chip in the path picker

Each node in the desktop tree now shows whether memory, rules or skills are attached, so it is obvious where the workspace is thin.

March 2026

ShipMar 28

Activity intelligence

Per-task activity is summarized into the next session's handoff, so the assistant picks up where the team left off without re-discovery.

FixMar 25

Search ranking on non-Latin titles

Memory titles in Turkish, Japanese and Cyrillic are now matched more reliably. Title and body text follow the same normalization rules.

UXMar 22

Cmd-K palette across the editor

Jump to any node, memory, rule, or skill from anywhere in the desktop app. Recent items pinned at the top, fuzzy match on title and body.

PerfMar 18

Cold start on Apple Silicon

Trimmed preloaded modules and deferred non-essential workers. App-ready time on M-series Macs is down ~38% from a cold launch.

ShipMar 14

Per-node permission overrides

Lock a folder so only senior engineers can publish rules, while everyone still reads. Overrides cascade to children with opt-out per node.

FixMar 10

Token usage badge double-counted retries

Retried tool calls were summed twice in the per-session usage badge. The fix rolled out automatically with no client update required.

ToolsMar 5

Codex CLI integration GA

Codex can now read the same Pathrule workspace knowledge and permissions as the other supported AI coding tools.

SecurityMar 1

Build artifact hardening

Release artifacts no longer include sensitive provider credentials. Runtime access now follows a managed secret boundary.

February 2026

ShipFeb 26

Self-audit v1

Eight detectors sweep memories and rules around the clock (dead paths, shipped milestones, drifted packages, expired dates, zero usage, empty nodes, conflicting titles, untouched entries). Each suggestion can be handed to your AI for a one-click fix.

UXFeb 22

Onboarding cut from 14 steps to 4

Sign in, pick a workspace path, point your AI tool, you're done. New accounts now reach a working session in under a minute.

FixFeb 18

Activity log silently dropped at high rates

High activity sessions could occasionally drop non-critical events under pressure. Pathrule now preserves the events and delays delivery instead.

ShipFeb 12

Team workspaces

Org-wide knowledge with role-based access (Owner, Admin, Editor, Viewer) plus per-node overrides. Billing remains Owner-only.

PerfFeb 8

Tree query for large workspaces

Large workspaces open much faster because the desktop tree updates incrementally instead of reloading the whole structure.

ShipFeb 4

Skill creation flow

Templates for checklists, bug-pattern recipes and procedure docs make it easier to turn team process into reusable AI instructions.

FixFeb 1

Apple Silicon: rare crash on theme change

System theme changes during an active session could crash the desktop app on M-series Macs. Patched in 0.14.3.

January 2026

ShipJan 28

Pre-run context delivery

Path-scoped memories and rule reminders can arrive before the assistant's first action, reducing the need for extra lookup steps.

ToolsJan 22

Cursor integration

Cursor can now use the same Pathrule workspace knowledge and permission model as other supported AI coding tools.

SecurityJan 15

Access-control audit

Independent audit pass on user-data access controls. Findings are closed and the audit summary is referenced in section 10 of the Privacy Policy.

ShipJan 10

Markdown export

Export the entire workspace (memories, rules, skills, attachments) to a single markdown tarball. No lock-in; you own the data.

ShipJan 4

Rules with priority and scope

Rules now carry a scope, a priority (high, medium, low) that ranks how strongly they surface, and an enforcement mode. Strict rules require attention before risky actions, while advisory rules travel with the relevant task context.

December 2025

ShipDec 20

First teams onboarded

First teams onboarded. We ship weekly, measure every reminder, and tune routing on real sessions.