Thoth Files

v3.17.0 — Designer Studio II: Interactive Modes, Video Gen & Review Flow

Designer graduates from a single-mode deck authoring tool into a full multi-mode design studio. Five project modes now ship — deck, document, landing page, app mockup, and storyboard — each with its own canvas rules, prompt guardrails, and curated template gallery. Interactive modes (landing / app_mockup / storyboard) run on a new sandboxed runtime bridge that turns declarative data-thoth-action attributes into real in-preview navigation, state toggles, and media playback without letting the agent write free-form <script>. A new video generation tool joins image generation as a first-class asset producer. A surgical tool surface — move, duplicate, restyle, refine-text, add-chart, insert-component, critique-page, apply-repairs — lets the agent edit pages without rewriting HTML. A new review dialog and mutation diff show exactly what changed turn over turn. The agent is bound by mode-specific content budgets and a post-critique repair loop so pages no longer clip at the canvas edge. Editable PPTX export is rewritten around isolated-page rasters so overlapping text no longer bleeds between slides. Designer assets now live under a shared utils/ layer, and the home UI picks up bulk-select, skeleton loading, confirm dialogs, and richer sidebar + status bar states. Outside Designer, Thoth ships its own in-app auto-updater — packaged Windows and macOS builds now check GitHub Releases in the background, surface an ⬆ vX.Y.Z pill in the status bar, and install SHA256- and code-signature-verified updates without leaving the app.

🎨 Designer — Five Modes & Interactive Runtime

Designer is no longer deck-only. Each mode has dedicated canvas semantics, prompt guidance, template gallery, and preview behaviour.

• Five project modes — deck, document, landing, app_mockup, storyboard with mode-aware canvas rules (fixed-slide vs. scrollable vs. device viewport) and mode-aware prompt injection
• Interactive runtime bridge — new designer/runtime/ ships a sandboxed JS + CSS bridge loaded into preview, export, and published output; the agent uses declarative data-thoth-action="navigate:…", toggle_state:…, and play_media:… attributes instead of <script> tags or on* handlers
• Multi-route / multi-screen projects — designer/page_navigator.py, designer/route_graph.py, and designer/interaction.py let landing, app_mockup, and storyboard projects chain screens with real transitions (fade, slide_left, slide_up) and state-scoped overlays
• Hotspot recorder — new designer/hotspot_recorder.py turns a click on any preview element into a wired navigate or toggle action without hand-editing HTML
• Command palette — new designer/command_palette.py gives keyboard-driven access to every designer tool
• Zero-state quick-starts — new designer/zero_state.py shows per-mode starter chips when a project is empty; the first-draft CTA and quick-start panel now dismiss themselves as soon as the user commits
• Template gallery overhaul — designer/template_gallery.py and designer/templates.py add curated starters for every mode (pitch deck, brief, landing hero, three-route app scaffold, four-shot storyboard, SaaS dashboard, and more), upload-as-template, brand preset selection, and attached-file persistence through the setup flow

🖼️ Media, Image Placement & Video Generation

Designer media becomes more structured and more correct — agent-generated images land in the right containers, and video is a first-class asset type.

• Typed image slots + 5-path resolver — designer/ai_content.py now fills images through (1) data-thoth-image-slot / data-thoth-shot-visual typed slots, (2) position="replace:SELECTOR" targeting, (3) heuristic empty-placeholder detection covering hero/product/photo/recipe/screen/phone/card visuals, (4) blank <img> replacement, and (5) an overlay fallback as a last resort
• Correct cover sizing — when a wrapped image fragment drops into a slot, object-fit:cover is applied to the actual <img>/<video> element instead of an outer <div> where the property has no effect; stale width/height/margin from authored placeholders is stripped
• Video generation tool — new tools/video_gen_tool.py plus tool_guides/video_guide/ give Thoth a first-class video-generation surface with provider routing and documented guidance
• Editable PPTX raster isolation — designer/export.py opens a fresh Playwright page per slide raster, captures src/objectFit/objectPosition for <img> and svgOuterHTML for inline <svg>, and renders at device_scale_factor=2 so structured PPTX exports match the preview without text bleeding between slides
• Shared media helpers — new utils/media.py and utils/text.py centralise asset normalisation used by Designer, export, and channels

🧠 Agent Authoring Guardrails & Critique Loop

Mode-specific content budgets and a mandatory repair loop stop the agent from shipping clipped, overlapping, or cramped pages.

• Content budgets per mode — designer/prompt.py now enforces explicit per-page limits: document (130–160 words, ≥32–48 px bottom padding), deck (≤5 bullets, heading ≤4.5rem, 64–96 px edges), storyboard (one eyebrow + heading + paragraph + ≤2 metadata cards + direction + footer strip), landing (responsive sections with real padding), app_mockup (fixed device viewport with status/tab chrome)
• Authoring rules — explicit guidance forbids decorative CSS art stacked on top of heading text, requires horizontal button rows with distinct ghost/outline secondaries, and mandates typed image slots over absolute-positioned overlays
• Post-critique repair loop — after major rewrites the agent must call designer_critique_page and then either designer_apply_repairs(["overflow"]) or split content to an additional page via designer_add_page; no mode ships a clipped page
• Expanded overflow detection — designer/critique.py now flags card-heavy pages (≥7 card-like <div>s) in addition to section-heavy pages, catching storyboards and dashboards the old heuristic missed
• Brand lint — new designer/brand_lint.py catches hardcoded colours and fonts before they leave the tool
• Mutation diff + review dialog — new designer/mutation_diff.py, designer/review.py, and designer/review_dialog.py let the user inspect exactly what the agent changed, page by page, turn over turn

🧰 New Designer Tooling

The agent gets a surgical tool surface so it can make targeted edits instead of rewriting full-page HTML.

• Critique + repair — designer_critique_page reports hierarchy / overflow / contrast / readability / spacing findings; designer_apply_repairs applies deterministic fixes for selected categories
• Curated blocks — designer_insert_component inserts hero callouts, stats bands, testimonials, pricing cards, and timeline steps from a shared component library
• Surgical element edits — designer_move_image, designer_replace_image, designer_move_element, designer_duplicate_element, designer_restyle_element, and designer_refine_text preserve existing layout and assets
• Interactive mode tools — designer_add_screen, designer_link_screens, designer_set_interaction, designer_preview_screen, designer_reorder_routes, and designer_set_mode drive multi-route editing through the runtime bridge
• Share, publish, resize — designer_publish_link, designer_resize_project, designer_share_link, and QR helpers in new designer/qr_utils.py round out the share-and-ship path

💬 UI & Workflow Updates

The home surface and chat stack pick up quality-of-life improvements shared by Designer and the main chat.

• Bulk select + confirm dialogs — new ui/bulk_select.py and ui/confirm.py give every list-based surface batch actions with a consistent confirm flow
• Skeleton loading — new ui/skeleton.py renders placeholder blocks while Designer gallery cards, threads, and published links hydrate
• Timer utilities — new ui/timer_utils.py standardises polling and debounce patterns used across the home tab and designer editor
• Sidebar + command center — ui/sidebar.py adds richer thread controls, batch operations, and pinned-thread affordances; ui/command_center.py tightens the insights panel
• Chat + streaming refresh — ui/chat.py, ui/streaming.py, and ui/render.py polish the streaming message area, attachment handling, and tool-call rendering
• Home tab stability — ui/home.py now polls for the chat container mount before dispatching an initial build so first-draft messages no longer race the UI

🛰️ Channels

All four messaging adapters pick up attachment and stability fixes introduced alongside the video generation tool.

• Shared media capture — new channels/media_capture.py centralises image/audio/document handling reused by Discord, Slack, Telegram, and WhatsApp
• Discord — voice-warning suppression and richer attachment flows in channels/discord_channel.py
• Slack / Telegram / WhatsApp — consistent media attachment, streaming-edit, and link-preview handling across channels/slack.py, channels/telegram.py, channels/whatsapp.py, and the WhatsApp channels/whatsapp_bridge/bridge.js

🔧 Tools & Status

• Video generation tool — new tools/video_gen_tool.py with matching tool_guides/video_guide/
• Thoth Status — tools/thoth_status_tool.py adds double-gated model normalisation, video-generation status, and syncs with the updated tool guide in tool_guides/thoth_status_guide/SKILL.md
• Browser tool — tools/browser_tool.py stability fixes
• X tool — tools/x_tool.py adds OAuth rate-limit-aware health checks
• Registry — tools/__init__.py and tools/registry.py register the video tool alongside existing surfaces

🐛 Bug Fixes

• First-draft CTA persistence — the "Build First Draft" button and quick-start panel now delete themselves as soon as the user clicks, instead of lingering over the chat thread
• First-draft references — attached files are persisted as project references before the first turn so their extracted content reaches the agent on the initial build
• Upload handler — Designer file upload switches to e.file.read() with an async/sync dual path, fixing AttributeError: UploadEventArguments.name and NoneType context manager crashes on the first upload
• Initial chat container race — ui/home.py polls up to 5 s for the chat container to mount before sending the initial build message instead of silently dropping it
• PPTX text duplication — editable PPTX exports no longer overlay overlapping text between slides; each raster is rendered in an isolated Playwright page
• Image overlay fallback — agent-generated images land in the correct container via typed slots and heuristic placeholder detection instead of floating as absolute overlays on top of existing content
• Slot sizing — inner <img> elements get proper width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover styles; previously object-fit was applied to a wrapper <div> where it had no effect

⬆ In-App Auto-Updates

Thoth now ships its own background updater so users on packaged Windows / macOS builds get new releases without ever leaving the app.

• Background scheduler — new stdlib-only updater.py polls the GitHub Releases API on a daemon thread (30-second startup delay, every 6 hours, 24-hour debounce). Checking is on by default; if there's no Internet the call fails silently and the next tick retries. Dev installs (running from a .git/ checkout) are detected and the scheduler is skipped
• Status-bar pill — ui/status_bar.py renders an ⬆ vX.Y.Z chip when a newer release is available; the pill subscribes to updater state-change notifications and clears itself when the user installs or skips
• What's-New dialog — new ui/update_dialog.py shows the release notes, an Install now primary action, and Skip this version / Remind me later secondary actions; skipped versions and dismissed banners persist to ~/.thoth/update_config.json
• Settings surface — Settings → Preferences → Updates exposes channel selection (stable / beta), the skip list with one-click un-skip, a manual Check now button, and the last-checked / last-success timestamps
• SHA256-verified downloads — every release body embeds a <!-- thoth-update-manifest --> fenced block (schema: 1, per-asset sha256). The updater downloads the platform-specific asset, computes its hash, and refuses to launch the installer on mismatch
• OS code-signature gate — Windows runs signtool.exe verify /pa (Authenticode); macOS runs codesign --verify --deep --strict. A failed signature check aborts the install before the OS installer is launched
• Per-platform asset routing — Windows expects ThothSetup_X.Y.Z.exe, macOS expects Thoth-X.Y.Z-macOS-{arm64|x86_64}.dmg; arch detection picks the right Mac asset automatically
• Hand-off — Windows launches the Inno Setup installer in silent mode (/SILENT /CLOSEAPPLICATIONS /RESTARTAPPLICATIONS) so it can swap files in place and re-launch Thoth; macOS opens the verified DMG
• Agent surface — new tools/updater_tool.py registers thoth_check_for_updates (read-only) and thoth_install_update (interrupt-gated). The dynamic self-knowledge block surfaces "Update available: …" when applicable, and thoth_status adds an updates category
• Release plumbing — new scripts/append_sha_manifest.py computes and patches the manifest block into a published GitHub release body; new .github/workflows/update-manifest.yml runs it automatically on release: [published, edited]; new .github/workflows/notarize-submit.yml and .github/workflows/notarize-check.yml handle Apple notarization with stapling

🧰 Other Changes

• Shared utilities — new top-level utils/ package with media.py and text.py consolidates helpers previously duplicated across Designer, channels, and export
• Designer storage & history — designer/storage.py and designer/history.py tighten snapshot handling and Windows-safe atomic writes
• Prompt scaffolding — prompts.py, self_knowledge.py, and memory.py feed richer identity, self-knowledge, and threads context into the agent
• Installer packaging — installer/thoth_setup.iss bumps to v3.17.0 and bundles the new Designer runtime assets and video-guide skills
• Skills & guides — bundled_skills/design_creator/SKILL.md and tool_guides/designer_guide/SKILL.md are rewritten around the five modes, typed image slots, and the critique-repair loop

🧪 Tests

• Regression expansion — test_suite.py picks up ~2,700 new lines of coverage, heavily focused on Designer modes, runtime bridge, export isolation, image slot resolution, critique thresholds, and the video generation tool
• Section 73: Auto-Update — 16 dedicated tests covering the updater public API, config persistence, manifest parsing and SHA256 verification, per-platform asset selection, channel filtering and skip-list handling, state transitions, dev-install detection, and thoth_check_for_updates / thoth_install_update tool registration

📁 Files Changed

File	Change
designer/runtime/	New — sandboxed JS + CSS runtime bridge loaded into preview, export, and published output
designer/brand_lint.py	New — catches hardcoded colours / fonts before they leave the tool
designer/command_palette.py	New — keyboard-driven access to every designer tool
designer/hotspot_recorder.py	New — click-to-wire navigate / toggle actions in preview
designer/mutation_diff.py	New — turn-over-turn diff of agent-authored page changes
designer/qr_utils.py	New — QR helpers for shareable published links
designer/review.py	New — review model + state for inspecting agent mutations
designer/review_dialog.py	New — UI surface for the review flow
designer/route_graph.py	New — multi-route graph model for interactive modes
designer/zero_state.py	New — per-mode quick-start chip suggestions
tools/video_gen_tool.py	New — first-class video generation tool
tool_guides/video_guide/	New — tool-usage guide for video generation
utils/	New — shared media.py / text.py helpers used by Designer, export, and channels
ui/bulk_select.py	New — batch-select primitive shared across home surfaces
ui/confirm.py	New — standard confirm-dialog helper
ui/skeleton.py	New — skeleton loading blocks for galleries and lists
ui/timer_utils.py	New — polling / debounce utilities
designer/ai_content.py	5-path image slot resolver, object-fit:cover applied to the real media element, stripped stale author styles
designer/editor.py	First-draft CTA + quick-start panel self-dismiss; reference-aware send path; richer chat wiring
designer/export.py	Isolated-page raster per slide for editable PPTX; captures objectFit / objectPosition / svgOuterHTML
designer/templates.py	Curated starters for every mode (pitch, brief, landing hero, three-route app, four-shot storyboard, SaaS dashboard, more)
designer/template_gallery.py	Five-mode gallery, upload-as-template, brand preset selector, attached-file persistence
designer/tool.py	Adds critique / repair / insert-component / move / duplicate / restyle / refine-text / video-gen / interactive-mode tools
designer/prompt.py	Mode-specific canvas rules and content budgets, authoring guardrails, post-critique repair loop
designer/critique.py	Overflow detection now also flags card-heavy pages
designer/page_navigator.py	Interactive-mode route switching and preview wiring
designer/preview.py	Multi-route interactive rendering, runtime bridge injection
designer/state.py	Five-mode project model and interactive-mode metadata
designer/storage.py	Tighter atomic writes and history handling
designer/interaction.py	Declarative data-attribute action model
designer/presentation.py	Presenter-mode support for storyboard and multi-route projects
designer/publish.py · designer/share_dialog.py	Published-link + QR share flow
designer/setup_flow.py · designer/briefing.py · designer/session.py · designer/home_tab.py · designer/history.py · designer/render_assets.py · designer/html_ops.py	Five-mode setup, briefing, session, home-tab, history, asset hydration, and HTML-ops refinements
channels/media_capture.py	New — shared channel media helper
channels/discord_channel.py · channels/slack.py · channels/telegram.py · channels/whatsapp.py · channels/whatsapp_bridge/bridge.js	Media capture, voice-warning suppression, and attachment fixes
ui/home.py	Initial-build chat container polling; designer tab refinements
ui/sidebar.py · ui/command_center.py · ui/chat.py · ui/streaming.py · ui/render.py · ui/settings.py · ui/status_bar.py · ui/head_html.py · ui/helpers.py · ui/export.py · ui/state.py	Sidebar batch actions, skeleton/confirm plumbing, chat streaming polish, settings and status bar updates
tools/__init__.py · tools/registry.py	Registers the video generation tool
tools/browser_tool.py · tools/x_tool.py	Browser stability + X OAuth rate-limit health check
tool_guides/designer_guide/SKILL.md · tool_guides/thoth_status_guide/SKILL.md	Rewritten for five modes, typed slots, critique-repair loop, and video generation
bundled_skills/design_creator/SKILL.md	Updated authoring behaviour for the five modes
agent.py · app.py · dream_cycle.py · memory.py · tasks.py · threads.py · self_knowledge.py	Agent / app / dream-cycle / memory / tasks / threads / self-knowledge refinements
installer/thoth_setup.iss	v3.17.0 packaging with bundled runtime and video guide; bundles updater.py, ui/update_dialog.py, tools/updater_tool.py, and scripts/append_sha_manifest.py; CloseApplications=yes / RestartApplications=yes for in-place auto-update swap
updater.py	New — stdlib-only background update scheduler with channel selection, manifest verification, and OS code-signature gating
ui/update_dialog.py	New — What's-New dialog with Install / Skip / Remind-me-later flow
tools/updater_tool.py	New — agent-surface tools thoth_check_for_updates and thoth_install_update
scripts/append_sha_manifest.py	New — computes SHA256 of release assets and patches the <!-- thoth-update-manifest --> block into the GitHub release body
.github/workflows/update-manifest.yml	New — runs append_sha_manifest.py automatically on release: [published, edited]
.github/workflows/notarize-submit.yml · .github/workflows/notarize-check.yml	New — Apple notarization submit + poll + staple workflow
.github/workflows/release.yml	Builds Windows installer + signed macOS DMG/PKG; Authenticode signing block staged for Certum cert
app.py	Calls start_update_scheduler() at boot
tools/thoth_status_tool.py	Adds updates status category alongside double-gated model normalisation and video-generation status
self_knowledge.py	Dynamic self-knowledge block surfaces "Update available: …" when the updater has detected one
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md	Updated for the new Designer runtime, utilities layout, and Auto-Updates subsystem
README.md	Adds the ⬆ Auto-Updates section
test_suite.py	~2,700 lines of new Designer / runtime / export / image-slot / critique / video-tool coverage; Section 73 adds 16 auto-update tests

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