What's new in Shuriken 5.1

Shuriken 5.1 is out, and with it anyone can make an account. It carries everything we've built since 5.0 on 19 October. You sign in with Google, Apple or an emailed code, and a passkey opens your encrypted data. You answer an agent from the chat, a MacBook's notch or your phone. Sources shows what you pay and when each provider's fuel runs out. It also fixes the "Connection lost" stalls we tracked down in October.

5.1.2, the update we ship just before the launch, lets a chat run on another of your computers, adds Planning, moves whole projects between computers and gives the app a new look: white buttons, a new logo and small notifications at the top right.

On a Mac, 5.1 needs Apple silicon.

New in 5.1.2#

Run a chat on another computer#

A chat's Run on… menu lists your other computers and servers. Pick one, and the chat moves there with its history, settings and uncommitted work. It's still the same chat, in the same place in your list; only the computer it runs on changes. A chat in the middle of a turn moves once the turn finishes, and when the other computer doesn't have the project yet, Shuriken gets it from the project's remote first. How it works.

Planning#

The message box's mode picker has two choices now, Default and Planning. In Planning, the agent works in its own plan mode, where it has one (Claude Code and Codex both do): it plans first and asks before it changes anything. After the plan, the chat carries on in the mode you were in.

Move a project to another device#

Move to another device, in a project's settings, copies the whole project to another of your computers or servers, checks the copy, and only then removes it here. It offers a cable, Ethernet, Wi-Fi or the internet, with a time estimate for each from a measured speed; the internet way always works and is end-to-end encrypted through your account. The move runs in the background, shows in the sidebar while it runs, and can be started from your phone too.

Another provider in the same chat#

Once a turn has finished, the model picker can switch the chat to another provider, say from Claude to Codex. It's experimental, and Shuriken says so before it asks you to continue: the new provider gets the chat so far as context.

Analytics and Wrapped#

Analytics has its own page under Home, and Shuriken Wrapped waits in the sidebar under Home until you open it.

New#

Sign in with Google, Apple or an email code#

You can now sign in with Google, with Apple, or with a 6-digit code we email you, and passwords still work. The sign-in screen asks for your email first and marks the way you used last time.

A passkey can now unlock your encrypted data, with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or your screen lock, instead of your password. The end-to-end encryption doesn't change. Your vault key is wrapped once for each way in (a passkey, your password, a recovery key), and our cloud keeps only wrapped copies it can't open. Passkeys and the recovery key live in Settings › Account. Write the recovery key down when you make it: we show it once, and it's what gets you back in if you lose your passkeys and your password.

A new device doesn't need your password either. It asks a device you already use, which shows where the request comes from; you pick the two digits the new device shows, and only then is the key sealed to it. A wrong pick cancels the request. When you remove a device from your account, Shuriken moves the vault to a new key that device never gets. How our encryption works.

Allow, Always allow or Don't allow#

When an agent asks before it runs a command or changes a file, you now answer on one card with three buttons: Allow, Always allow and Don't allow. Enter allows and Esc is Don't allow, which takes an optional note for the agent. Always allow uses the agent's own answer for it: the rule Claude Code suggests, or Codex's yes for the rest of the session. Where an agent has no such answer, the button isn't there.

The same three answers are on the notch alert on a Mac and on the notification on your phone or in your browser, where it shows buttons. The first answer counts everywhere, so a permission you allowed on your phone is answered in the chat too, and a second answer is told it's too late.

When your computer blocks an agent#

Some things an agent does need macOS's permission first: seeing the screen (Claude Code's computer use, screenshots), clicking and typing in other apps, scripting another app with osascript, or reading a protected folder. Agents ask macOS as Shuriken, so it's Shuriken's switch that has to be on. When macOS says no, a card in the chat now says what needs it and why, opens the exact pane of System Settings › Privacy & Security, and checks again by itself without starting anything. Once the switch is on, Retry sends the agent back to work.

Codex gets the same card when its sandbox blocks a write outside the project, with the way to give that chat full access. On Windows, the card covers Developer Mode and PowerShell's script policy.

Alerts at the notch#

On a Mac, a chat that is done, failed or needs you now grows out of the notch, instead of showing a banner in the corner. Needs you shrinks back to the notch after six seconds and waits there until you answer; point at it to open it again. A permission shows its command, path or address with Allow and Don't allow (and Always allow where the agent offers it), a question has Open, and a failed chat says why it stopped, with Try again. Click the alert to open the chat. It never takes the focus from what you're typing.

The alert follows your app's theme, with the strip that touches the notch kept black so it reads as the notch growing. On a Mac without a notch, it drops from the top of the screen. Notch alerts are on by default on a Mac; Settings › Notifications has the switch and a Preview. Some news that used to be a message in the app, such as a low-storage warning, shows there too. A source switch never does.

Billing and fuel in Sources#

A source that was on a paid plan and now reads Free twice, at least five minutes apart, shows Subscription paused instead of a wrong Free plan, with Open billing beside it. Shuriken doesn't guess at the cause, and a new sign-in clears it. In the desktop app, Open billing opens the provider's own billing page in a window of its own. You sign in there, Shuriken reads nothing from it, and an invoice you download lands in your Downloads folder. In the web app and on a phone, the page opens in your browser. A plan you pay through Apple or Google opens Apple's or Google's subscription page instead.

Sources also shows Claude's extra usage (what you've spent against your monthly cap, or why it's off) and Codex's credits. Both come from the usage answers Shuriken already reads, so the provider gets no extra request.

Each provider now has a forecast. At your current pace, counting only the time you're active, Sources shows when that provider's fuel runs out and when it comes back. If every source of a provider would run out before a reset brings room back, you get one warning, on your phone, your desktop and the notch. When a reset arrives in time, you hear nothing. What fuel counts.

The web app at app.shuriken.sh#

The web app has its own address now: app.shuriken.sh. Open it in any browser, on a laptop or a phone, to follow and steer the chats on your computers and servers. A browser runs no agents itself, and it never counts as a device on any plan.

You sign in once for both the website and the web app, and signing out of one signs you out of the other. Old links to shuriken.sh/app move to the new address by themselves. If you installed the web app from shuriken.sh, its icon keeps working; install it again from app.shuriken.sh to get an icon for the new address. The browser asks again there before it shows notifications.

Voice that stays on your computer#

Dictation and voice mode now turn your voice into text on your computer by default, with NVIDIA Parakeet, an open speech model. No speech service hears it, and once the model is downloaded (about 465 MB, once) it works offline. It knows 25 European languages and picks the one you speak, and it learns the words you use often or correct by hand.

When you dictate from a phone or a browser, the audio travels end-to-end encrypted to the computer the project runs on, and that computer turns it into text. Our cloud only relays the sealed messages.

If you'd rather use a live speech service, add your own key for ElevenLabs, AssemblyAI, Deepgram, Speechmatics or OpenAI in Settings › Dictation. Your audio then streams to that provider, under your account and on your bill, and silence is never sent. A small mic in the top bar says whether you can dictate, and when something is wrong it offers one button that fixes it. Voice in Shuriken.

File cards#

Files an agent makes or hands you now show up as a card in the chat, with the file's name, size and folder. Click the card to open the file in a tab, or press Download to save a copy: a save dialog in the desktop app, a download in the browser, the share sheet on a phone. No more digging through a worktree for the report you asked for.

A new queue row, with Steer#

Each queued message is one line now, with its repeats and attachments counted at a glance. The new Steer button sends a queued message into the turn that's running, instead of waiting for it to end. Handy when you spot the agent heading the wrong way. Steer works with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Pi; with other agents, the message waits for the turn to end. How the queue works.

Questions wait above the message box#

When an agent asks you something, shows you its plan or needs a permission, the card now sits above the message box, in the queue's place. It never grows past 45% of the window, so the conversation stays in view while you answer.

Local models as sources#

Give Claude Code or Codex a source that points at Ollama, LM Studio or any Anthropic- or OpenAI-compatible address. It's an endpoint, so it never goes ahead of your subscriptions: it takes chats when you pick it with Use, or once every subscription is out and your switching settings let it take over. Shuriken doesn't put a price on its turns; they read "local" in the chat. Local models as sources.

Gemini and the other agents are also as easy to set up as Claude now. Antigravity, Google's agent, runs in Shuriken too, in chat through Google's own ACP server, and its editor is one of the apps under Open in.

Chats without a project#

Not everything belongs to a project. You can now start a chat without making one, like a plain chat app. These chats are kept by the computer they run on. If one turns into real work, Move to project opens a new chat in the project you pick, with the conversation in its message box.

Forks, and Merge into#

Fork a chat from one of the agent's replies to try a different approach. Forks now sit under the chat they came from, and when one wins, Merge into … brings its changes back and leaves a short summary of what it did in the original chat.

Shared projects (beta)#

Let a friend work in one of your projects, on your computer. Their chats run there, with your files and your Claude, and every message and queued row shows who sent it. Shared projects are an opt-in beta, off by default: you both turn on Shared projects (beta) in Settings › Projects, then you pick Share… in the project's ⋯ menu. Sharing needs Pro on your side; your friend can be on any plan. You set a daily spend cap on your Claude, a member can't push, merge or use your terminal, and Stop sharing ends their access at once. Shared projects, step by step.

Free limit resets, spotted for you#

Claude and Codex sometimes give an account a free limit reset. It refills the 5-hour limit, the weekly limit or both, once, and it expires on a date the provider sets. Shuriken now spots these resets on every Claude and Codex source whose usage it can read, on every plan.

While one is waiting, a card on Home and the Dashboard shows what it refills and counts down to when it expires. Each new reset also brings a notification and one email. You use the reset yourself, in Claude's or Codex's own app. Shuriken finds them in the usage answer it already reads for the bars, on your computer, so your sign-ins don't leave it for this. Limit reset alerts.

Design mode, by voice#

In the built-in browser's Design mode you can now say the change instead of typing it, with your words showing as you talk. If the agent is busy, the button becomes Add to queue, so the change waits its turn. Desktop app only. The browser.

Keep awake on Mac, Windows and Linux#

Cocaine mode (yes, it's still called that) now runs on Windows and Linux too. Pick which of your computers stay awake. A Mac keeps working with the lid closed. On Windows and Linux, each computer tells you what it can do: keep running with the lid closed, stay awake with the lid open and ask once for permission to run with it closed, or stay awake where there's no lid setting at all. Cocaine mode.

A guide to the keyboard#

Press ⌘/ on a Mac, or Ctrl+/ on Windows and Linux, for a guide to the shortcuts, with the ones for where you are first. F6 and ⇧F6 move between the sidebar, the chat, the message box and the side panel, which is also the way out of a terminal. In a focused chat, J and K go to the next and the previous message, and back and forward have keys of their own. ⌘K finds more as well: help, archived chats, branches, shortcuts and recent messages.

Projects on external drives#

The project picker lists the usual places and every connected drive, each with its own icon. A project remembers which drive it lives on, so it follows that drive to a new mount point. Unplug the drive and the project says its drive isn't connected; plug it back in and the project opens by itself.

The menu bar and the app icon#

The menu bar icon (the tray icon on Windows and Linux) lists your open projects with their chats. Each project has Start recording: say a message for it right there, then send it now or add it to the queue, without opening the main window. A global shortcut starts a recording from anywhere: ⌥⇧⌘R on a Mac, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R on Windows and Super+Alt+R on Linux, and you can change it or turn it off.

Right-click the app's icon in the Dock, the Windows jump list or the Linux launcher for your recent projects, New chat, Start recording and Settings.

Delete your account#

Settings › Account now has a Delete button. You can export your data first, then confirm by email, and our cloud erases what it holds for you, including your devices, your sources' sign-ins and keys, your synced settings and your bug reports. The exception is Pro orders and invoices, which the law makes us keep. Chats and files on your own computers stay there. What our cloud holds.

Improved#

What your sources have left is counted as fuel, on one scale: 100 Claude fuel is a whole Max 20x limit, in the 5-hour window and in the week, so a Pro counts 5 every 5 hours and about 17 a week. For Codex, 100 is about one Pro's week, so a Plus counts 20. Each provider's fuel is added up on its own. The top bar's usage bar writes what's left inside it, such as "W 36%" for the week, shows when that limit resets when you point at it, and opens Sources with every source on a click. The same bar sits on Sources, on Home and on the sidebar's source card. Sources also take one or more tags, such as Work, Personal or Client, to filter the Sources list by. Tags replace folders.

Every device, and every drive with projects on it, shows its free space now, in every app you're signed in to. When one is almost full, a notice above your projects and a card on Home name it and the projects on it. One OK clears it on all your devices, and your phone gets one push. Shuriken doesn't delete anything for you. If you pick Don't show again, Settings › Notifications turns it back on.

Start unused 5-hour clocks works differently. When a subscription's 5-hour window hasn't started, Shuriken sends it one tiny background request, once per window, so its clock starts and its limit comes back sooner. It no longer moves your chats to do that. The request never shows in a chat or your history, and it counts toward that account's usage. 5-hour clocks.

The message box has separate Model and Thinking pickers.

While a turn runs, its footer, next to the fork button, shows how long it has run, the commands it ran, the lines it added and removed, and its tokens and cost so far, counting the subagents and workflows it started. When the turn ends, the figures stay there and the cost goes into the chat's total. The message box no longer shows a cost. Claude Code, Codex and other agents that report usage as they go show it live. Gemini CLI reports its tokens only when a turn ends, so its cost shows then. Live cost.

Agents know they're inside Shuriken and can answer questions about it. With Let agents ask to act on, an agent can ask Shuriken to make a project, start a chat, send a message to another chat or open a preview, and nothing happens until you confirm the card it shows. Both switches are in Settings › Agents, and a project can turn it off for its own chats. Commands such as /stats, /usage-credits, /release-notes and /passes open as panels in the chat.

The desktop app updates itself: it downloads a new version and installs it when you quit, or while you're away and nothing runs. The switch is Update automatically, in Settings › Updates. Quitting while chats run asks you first.

The top bar shows how the computer your project runs on is doing: memory, CPU, free disk, battery, keep awake and the internet connection. A reading turns amber or red when it needs a look, and Settings › General › Top bar picks All, Only when high or Off. On a laptop, pulling the charger plays a short sound, even with the window closed. You can turn the sound off in Settings › Notifications.

A chat that has been idle for 20 minutes frees its memory and wakes with its history on your next message. Running, waiting and queued chats stay awake. You can change the time or turn it off in Settings › Chat.

The look is cleaner: a taller top bar with search on the right, one style for every menu, and Settings grouped into You, Work and App (how we built the new design). In the last update before launch, buttons went white instead of blue, the logo became the mark with SHURIKEN beside it, and notifications became small cards at the top right. On a phone, the web app no longer hides anything under the status bar or the notch (Shuriken on your phone).

You add an MCP server once and give it to every project or just some (Global MCPs). Pinned chats, the queue and notification settings stay in step across your computers, servers and phone.

When Shuriken rotates your vault's key, it seals the new key only to devices you confirmed with your password, never to a device the cloud adds back. A device you haven't confirmed asks you to keep it or remove it. The whole end-to-end design is on the encryption page, next to the source code it describes.

Fixed#

No more "Connection lost" stalls. On 5.0, loading one very large chat history could freeze the background service, and chats got stuck on "Connection lost". That's fixed. The background service no longer runs out of memory, and many smaller bugs are gone too. What went wrong, and the fix.

Free and Pro#

Everything in this post is on Free, with no card and no trial clock, apart from sharing a project in the beta, which needs Pro on the owner's side. Every new account starts with 14 days of Pro, free and with no card, and drops to Free after that unless you upgrade. Pro is €49 a month or €490 a year. Founding members have Pro's features at no charge, so nothing changes for them. See Pricing.

Still coming#

Some of what we're working on isn't in 5.1. We'll write about each one when it ships:

• Native iOS and Android apps, built from scratch, planned for November 2026. Until then, the web app at app.shuriken.sh works in any phone browser and installs to your home screen.

Getting 5.1#

Shuriken for Mac now needs a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer). An Intel Mac on 5.0 keeps that version and gets no more updates.

On 5.0, the desktop app offers 5.1 in its update window; from 5.1 on, updates install by themselves. Servers update themselves once no agent is mid-turn, and the web app is always the newest version. New here? Try Shuriken.