Release notes, part 1: 0.1 to 0.6
This is the first of four posts walking through MakeKeeper’s release history, from the first published image to the version that put the source in the open. Nothing here is a changelog entry for its own sake — just what changed and why it mattered.
0.1.0 is not where the project starts. It is where it started being publishable: the first container images anyone could pull. By then the app already had its shape — projects with tasks, an inventory of parts and materials, storage locations, orders and suppliers, tags that work across all of it, statistics, and an assistant that can be pointed at any of it. What the next six releases did was make that thing something a stranger could install, update and actually put files into.
0.1.0 — 23 July 2026
First published container images. From here on, running MakeKeeper meant pulling an image rather than building a checkout.
0.2.0 — 24 July 2026
The app learned its own version, and learned to check whether a newer one exists. Settings now tells the administrator what is installed and whether an update is waiting — the sort of thing that feels minor until you are three versions behind and have no way of knowing.
0.3.0 — 25 July 2026
Updating without the terminal. MakeKeeper works out how it was installed and, where that method allows it, offers a one-click update; where it does not, it shows instructions for that particular setup rather than generic ones.
0.4.0 — 25 July 2026
Project files stopped being a one-way street: you can download them, or simply drag them out of the browser into a folder. Settings and Access were reorganised into tabbed hubs, because both had quietly grown past the point where one long page was honest.
0.5.0 and 0.5.1 — 26 July 2026
The assistant began noticing attachments that are not images — a datasheet, a spec, a bill of materials — announcing them and reading them when asked. Uploaded images got smaller preview versions generated for them, so opening a project’s gallery no longer meant downloading a dozen full-resolution photographs.
0.6.0 — 28 July 2026
The tail of that image work, all in one release: a full-screen viewer for photographs, a grid or a list in the Files tab, a disk-usage report with a sweep for orphaned files, and attachments served only to someone actually signed in. Files also learned to follow their parent when a project is shared with someone else.
Next: part 2 — 0.7 and the plugins from outside. If you would rather see the thing than read about it, the home page has the short version and the install command.