Nanocoder Recent Updates: v1.15.0 to v1.16.4

Here's what's been happening with Nanocoder lately! We've been busy shipping some pretty cool stuff from v1.15.0 to v1.16.4 - including a complete backend overhaul, new features for tracking context usage and tagging files, tool system refinements for better context management, configuration directory improvements, and a bunch of important fixes to make everything run smoother. Let's dive in.

v1.16.4 - Configuration, Updates & Input Handling

Release Focus: Configuration/data separation, intelligent update detection, and improved terminal compatibility

New Features

New: Dracula theme added to the theme selector

Major Changes

Big: Decoupled configuration vs data directories to introduce clear separation between configuration and application data directories (contributed by @bowmanjd) 🎉

• Config now lives in platform-specific config directories (e.g., ~/.config/nanocoder/)
• Data stored separately in platform-specific data directories
• Optional NANOCODER_DATA_DIR environment variable for custom data location
• Automatic migration from old paths with user feedback

Big: Update checker now intelligently detects how you installed Nanocoder and provides appropriate update instructions (contributed by @fabriziosalmi)

• Auto-detects installation method (npm, Homebrew, Nix, etc.)
• Shows correct update commands based on detection
• Provides manual update steps if auto-detection fails

Fixes

Fix: Command auto-complete now auto-completes to the top suggestion regardless of how many matches exist (previously only worked with single match)

Fix: Improved paste detection to create placeholders for any pasted content (removed 80-char minimum), fixed consecutive paste placeholder sizing, and improved paste chunking for VSCode and other terminals

Fix: Creating new lines in VSCode Terminal was broken - now fully functional

Fix: History navigation issues resolved

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v1.16.3 - Tool System Overhaul

Release Focus: Context management optimization and tool refinement for smaller models

Major Changes

Big: Complete tool system redesign to better manage context and improve accuracy for smaller models like Qwen 3 Coder 30B

New Tools

New: find_files tool - Model provides a pattern and gets back matching files and directory paths

New: search_file_contents tool - Model provides a pattern and gets back matching content with metadata for further use

Tool Improvements

Enhanced: read_file tool now reveals progressive information about files

• Called alone: Returns just file metadata
• With line number ranges: Returns specific content
• Reduces unnecessary context loading

Removed Tools

Removed: read_many_files tool - Rarely used by models over read_file with little benefit

Removed: search_files tool - Models often found it confusing when trying to differentiate finding files vs searching content

Enhancements

Enhancement: Removed message display limit - You can now see entire session history (message queue is well optimized)

Enhancement: Many edge-case fixes in the markdown parser for assistant messages - Outputs are far cleaner now

Fixes

Fix: Update checker used old rendering method so appeared broken and always checking for an update - Now fully functional

Fix: Config files now correctly use ~/.config/nanocoder/ (or platform equivalents) instead of ~/.local/share/nanocoder/, restoring proper XDG semantic separation between configuration and data (contributed by @bowmanjd)

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v1.16.2 - Output Management & Parsing Improvements

Release Focus: Enhanced tool output handling and model response reliability

Fixes

Fix: Models returning empty responses after tool execution now automatically reprompted

Fix: HTML tags in responses no longer trigger false tool call detection errors

Enhancements

Enhancement: search_files tool limited to 10 results (reduced from 50) to prevent large outputs

Enhancement: execute_bash output truncated to 2,000 chars (reduced from 4,000) and returns plain string

Enhancement: Model context limit tests updated to match actual implementation

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v1.16.1 - Installation Fix

Release Focus: Resolving installation issues for better package reliability

Fixes

Fix: Removed postinstall hook that caused installation failures when scripts directory was missing from published package

Change: Models.dev data now fetched on first use instead of during installation

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v1.16.0 - Usage Tracking & Stability

Release Focus: Context usage visibility and tool calling reliability

New Features

New: /usage command for visualizing model context usage (contributed by @spinualexandru, closes #12) 🎉

Enhancements

Enhancement: Added new models to recommendations database

Fixes

Fix: Resolved issue where model requested permission for non-existent tools - Now errors and loops back to the model to self-correct

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v1.15.1 - Compatibility Fixes

Release Focus: Cross-platform compatibility and edge case handling

Fixes

Fix: Ollama tool calls without IDs no longer cause empty responses - IDs now auto-generated when missing

Fix: Homebrew installer now working correctly

Fix: Node version requirement updated to 20+

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v1.15.0 - Major Architecture Update

Release Focus: Backend modernization and enhanced user experience

Major Changes

Big: Switched backend architecture from LangGraph to AI SDK - A better fit for Nanocoder (contributed by @DenizOkcu)

New Features

New: File tagging with @ symbol - Fuzzy search and select files to include in messages directly

New: Real-time message streaming to see agent respond in realtime - Toggle stream mode on/off via the /streaming command

New: Homebrew installation option

Enhancements

Enhancement: Command auto-complete now uses fuzzy search for better discoverability

Enhancement: Replaced custom table renderer with the more robust cli-table3 library

Enhancement: Refined XML/JSON parsing flow for non-native tool calls

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Summary

These releases demonstrate Nanocoder's commitment to:

Stability: Critical fixes for installation, tool calling, terminal compatibility, and cross-platform support

Performance: Architectural improvements with AI SDK migration, optimized context management, and refined tool system

User Experience: New features like context usage tracking, file tagging, real-time streaming, intelligent update detection, and improved configuration management

Community: Multiple contributor acknowledgments (@spinualexandru, @DenizOkcu, @bowmanjd, @fabriziosalmi) and continued focus on user feedback

The journey from v1.15.0 to v1.16.4 represents both major architectural milestones (AI SDK migration, tool system overhaul, config/data separation) and incremental refinements based on real-world usage and community feedback. Special focus on making Nanocoder work better with smaller models through intelligent context management shows our commitment to accessibility and performance across all hardware configurations.

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Want to get involved? Drop a comment or an issue on the relevant repo 😎