Release Notes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the Stella icon sometimes lingering in the Dock after you finish setup — it now stays tucked away in the menu bar as intended.

What's better

• Spotlight panel is darker and easier to read over light wallpapers, with cleaner rounded corners

What's better

• Spotlight previews look right for slides, docs, and PDFs — proper aspect ratio, no dock-icon flicker
• Setting up Stella is calmer — no wall of macOS permission prompts before you've picked anything
• Spotlight now uses native macOS frosted glass, so the panel stays readable over any wallpaper
• Changing your keyboard shortcut is reliable — pick a combo, try it once, and you're done
• More apps in the launcher — Finder, Keychain Access, Directory Utility, and other system utilities show up now

Fixed

• Files from zip extracts, git clones, and folders moved into a watched directory now get indexed — previously they were silently skipped
• Clicking the menu-bar icon reliably opens the main window
• The "indexing complete" notification only fires once, on first indexing — not every time Stella starts
• The folder tree no longer collapses on you while indexing is running

Improvements

• Image, audio, and video searches now show up to 50 results sorted by most recent — instead of being capped at 5
• Spotlight starts fresh every time you open it: the query, filter, and date selection reset, matching Apple Spotlight

Bug Fixes

• Arrow keys and Space work immediately when Spotlight opens — no need to press Down first
• Reopening Spotlight no longer pulls you to a different desktop on macOS Spaces

New Features

• Stella now replaces macOS Spotlight — press ⌘Space to search (you can change this from the shortcut pill in the footer)
• Choose your own keyboard shortcut for Stella search during onboarding or in the footer settings
• Recently modified files are indexed first so your newest files are searchable sooner
• Desktop notifications when your recent files are ready and when indexing is complete
• Time estimate shown in the search bar while indexing is in progress
• Apps in nested folders (like Cisco AnyConnect, Canon Utilities) now appear in search results

Improvements

• Files that can't be fully read are still searchable by name instead of being silently skipped
• Search results refresh automatically when you reopen the search bar
• Drag the search bar to reposition it on screen
• Search window auto-dismisses after dragging a file to another app
• Opening search over a fullscreen app no longer causes a space-switch animation
• Spreadsheet previews no longer freeze the app on problematic files
• Click the version number in the footer to view release notes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed search hanging indefinitely when the search engine crashed in the background
• Fixed the app running out of file handles during large indexing sessions
• Fixed auto-update prompting for unnecessary macOS permissions
• Fixed Word documents showing "unsaved changes" dialog when opened from Stella
• Files that repeatedly fail to index are no longer retried endlessly
• Fixed onboarding progress showing "All done 0/0" before indexing starts

New Features

• Search and launch applications directly from Stella
• Quick Look preview (Space) and Reveal in Finder (⌘R) for search results
• Arrow key navigation between search results
• Native file drag from Stella into other apps like Notes, Gmail, etc.
• Files you open through Stella appear at the top of your results next time you search
• In-app Send Feedback form
• Collapsed to a single-page layout

Improvements

• Auto-rescan when FSEvents drops are detected

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Stella main window not opening on startup
• Fixed crashes during large indexing sessions

New Features

• Spotlight search now shows section headers and filename-only hints for media files
• Stella now respects .gitignore files during file discovery — ignored files are excluded from indexing
• Anonymous retention tracking via PostHog to help us understand if the product is useful

Improvements

• Cleaner large-folder warning and removed confusing folder tree badges during onboarding
• Reduced disk usage — index storage no longer bloats with thousands of files

Bug Fixes

• Fixed onboarding window disappearing after folder selection
• Fixed memory leak that could slow down indexing over time
• Fixed folder tree row click not responding
• Removing a folder while indexing is active now cleans up properly

Bug Fixes

• Fixed auto-update failure

New Features

• In-app notification when a new update is available
• Indexing progress bar in the spotlight search overlay

Bug Fixes

• Fixed onboarding menu bar icon rendering as a white blob in production
• Fixed app entering a broken state when opened multiple times

New Features

• Media files (images, audio, video) now indexed as metadata-only entries
• Large folder warnings before indexing begins
• Expanded onboarding to 5 steps with menu bar visual, shortcut try-it, and privacy messaging
• Search queries now prioritized over indexing in the embedding worker

Improvements

• Unified app color theme to the Stella brand palette
• Better handling of large text files

Bug Fixes

• Fixed spotlight search bar rendering too small in fullscreen mode