v0.1.35 — CodeNow Smart Coding · Two top labs · One agent · Routed per task

Released 2026-05-25. Multi-platform signed/notarized DMG + EXE + AppImage. Auto-update from v0.1.34 happens automatically on next launch.

Two things shipped together:

1. CodeNow Smart Coding — the bundled Cloud agent now routes every prompt across Anthropic Haiku 4.5 (speed) and OpenAI GPT-5 Codex (depth) based on six real-time signals. Users never pick a model — the right one is picked for them. Marketed at codenow.pro/smart .
2. 30 days free with 50K tokens/day, then $9.99/mo — replaces the v0.1.34 “free forever” framing. Bigger trial generosity, clearer transition to paid. Local mode (Ollama) stays free forever.

Plus: BYOK pill removed from the CodeNow Code mode picker (BYOK now lives exclusively in the per-provider Claude Code / Codex / Gemini bottom tabs); daily quota replaces monthly; Slack-suggestion banner suppressed in test fixtures.

CodeNow Smart Coding — what it is

A new sub-picker inside CodeNow Code Cloud mode lets the user pick a lab — but the default is Smart, which routes per turn.

┌─ Cloud mode ───────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Lab:  [Smart]   Haiku   GPT-5                         │
│                                                        │
│  Today · 2026-05-25 · plan: free                       │
│  4.2K / 50K input today  ·  0.8K / 10K output          │
│  ▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 8%                            │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When Smart is active, each chat message is tagged with the lab that answered:

CodeNow Code · Cloud · Haiku    Sure — useReducer is a React hook that lets you...
CodeNow Code · Cloud · GPT      Looking at all 4 files: the auth middleware uses cookies because...

No black box. You see the routing in action on every turn.

The six signals

Smart routing classifies every prompt against these signals (cheap, no extra round-trip — they’re regex + counters in site/api/codenow-code/chat.js → smartRoute()):

Decision tree (first match wins): DEEP_INTENT → GPT · REASONING → GPT · STACK_TRACE+files → GPT · HUGE_CONTEXT → GPT · LONG_THREAD → GPT · FAST_INTENT → Haiku · default → Haiku.

Tuned so ~70-80% of typical chat turns route to Haiku (load-bearing for the daily-cap economics — $0.015/heavy-user/day at the cap).

User override

The provider sub-picker pins Smart / Haiku / GPT-5. Pin Haiku for fast iteration, GPT for hard problems, Smart for “I don’t want to think about it.” Persists via ~/.codenow/settings.json (key: codenowCodeCloudProvider).

Daily quota (was monthly in v0.1.34)

The codenow_code_usage table is now rekeyed on (user_id, day) instead of (user_id, month). Resets every UTC midnight. Plans:

Schema migration applied to production Supabase via MCP. Table was empty so the migration was clean.

/api/codenow-code/usage returns the live daily numbers; the chat panel’s progress bar paints from this.

Trial extended: 7 → 30 days

TRIAL_DAYS constant bumped across src/main.js, src/renderer/app.js, and site/api/account/status.js. Existing users get gifted extra days (no regression — pure goodwill). Existing expired-trial users re-enter trial.

The topbar trial pill now reads “Day N of 30” with amber starting at day 23 (7 days remaining).

BYOK pill removed from CodeNow Code mode picker

CodeNow Code is the bundled agent. BYOK belongs to the dedicated Claude Code · Codex · Gemini · Aider · Copilot bottom tabs — each runs the official CLI as a real pty subprocess. Conflating them confused users; the v0.1.35 mode picker is just Cloud + Local.

A small migration in the renderer’s state loader rewrites any persisted byok mode (from v0.1.34) to cloud silently so existing users don’t end up on a non-existent pill.

OPENAI_API_KEY required for full Smart routing

Cloud mode now needs both ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_KEY in Vercel project env (both production and preview). The server gracefully falls back if one is missing — returns the response from whichever lab IS configured, with structured available_providers metadata in the error payload. No crashes.

Operator action — one-time:

vercel env add OPENAI_API_KEY production    # mark as sensitive
vercel env add OPENAI_API_KEY preview
vercel --prod --yes                          # redeploy to pick up

Marketing surface

• New marketing page at codenow.pro/smart  — outcome-first pitch (“Stop picking models. Get the right one. Every time.”) with two-lab lockup, side-by-side comparison vs single-model agents, real-prompt example vignettes tagged with the lab that would answer, six outcome cards, pricing CTA.
• Homepage hero rebuilt around Smart Coding as the lead — Claude + Codex lockup with brand colors, dual-lab promise, 30-day trial.
• Comparison table at codenow.pro/#compare  — new top row “CodeNow Smart Coding” comparing dual-lab vs every competitor’s single-lab story; pricing & token economics group rewritten for daily quota.
• New section “Top 15 reasons devs are switching to CodeNow” — addresses the Cursor / Codex / Windsurf / Copilot user pain points one at a time.

E2E hygiene

The Slack-suggestion banner (orange-bordered notification at the top of every screenshot if the host has Slack installed) was creating misleading “looks like a warning” artifacts in test screenshots. All fixture seeds now set slackSuggestionShown: true to suppress it. Onboarding suite keeps the flag false since it tests first-launch tour behavior.

Updated tests/e2e/codenow-code.spec.js:

• Removed BYOK assertions; 3-mode picker became 2-mode picker
• New test: provider sub-picker renders + switches across Smart / Haiku / GPT-5
• BYOK screenshot replaced with cloud-mode-GPT-active screenshot (proves the GPT pill activates)
• Status dot test rewritten for mode-aware behavior (cloud = ready dot, local without Ollama = off dot)

Regression

All v0.1.32 / v0.1.33 / v0.1.34 features still green (Task Hub, pair-programming bridge, CodeNow Code Cloud + Local).

Screenshots captured + READ for visible errors per the no-mocks rule:

• cnc-01-cloud-mode.png — Slack banner gone, 30-day trial pill, 2-mode picker + 3-provider sub-picker, sign-in state with 30-day + $9.99 copy
• cnc-02-local-install.png — Mode picker (no BYOK), install state with “code locally, zero connectivity” framing
• cnc-03-cloud-gpt-active.png — GPT-5 pill visibly active, distinct from Smart/Haiku

How to upgrade

If you’re on v0.1.31–v0.1.34, the embedded auto-updater picks v0.1.35 up on next launch. Click Restart and update when the banner appears.

Fresh install from codenow.pro :

• Mac (Apple Silicon) — CodeNow-arm64.dmg (signed + notarized)
• Mac (Intel) — CodeNow-x64.dmg (signed + notarized)
• Windows — CodeNow-Setup.exe
• Linux — CodeNow.AppImage

What’s deferred

• Per-provider token meter — currently the daily cap is one number; future versions may split Haiku vs GPT-5 usage so users can see which lab they burn more on
• Smart routing telemetry — we don’t currently log “Smart chose X for prompt Y” anywhere; future server-side aggregation could tune the heuristics over time
• Sub-second classifier model — the v0.1.35 router is regex + counters (cheap, no API call). v0.1.36 might add a tiny embedding-based classifier for harder-to-detect intent (still no extra round-trip — would use Anthropic’s cache-warmed small call)

Honest scope reminder

CodeNow Code Cloud’s marketing page at /smart is now outcome-first (Karl: “we need MARKETING COPY and not the plumbing and wiring behind a beautiful house”). The engineering details (the six signals, the decision table) live HERE in the release notes for developers who want to peek — the marketing page sells the outcome.